Two wheels are better than none
by Nyxteria3
Summary: Donnie loses the use of his legs before they are even old enough to go topside. There is a lot of hurdles to overcome and a lot of challenges ahead when you can't walk. Drabbles. AU. Not written in any particular chronological order.
1. Two wheels are better than none

Deep down below the surface, all the way down in the sewers, an odd family lived their life in peace. Four turtles and a rat, their mutations forcing them into hiding from those who would do them harm. The children were playing around in their hidden home, safe away from the world above. Protected by their father who wouldn't allow them to go outside their safe haven. Running and making up games in their free time, training and learning new things, not a care in the world.

Raphael came running with Michelangelo in tow, their excitement clear in their faces in the form of wide grins.

"Guys, guys! You gotta come see this!" Mikey exclaimed excitedly.

"I'll tell them! Since I found it!" Raph quickly butted in. Donnie lowered is old astronomy book and looked questioningly at his brothers, while Leo paused from his set of second-hand toys currently a bit spread out over what qualified as the living room. 

"What did you find..?" Don looked carefully at them, he'd much rather read right now, if he were honest. 

"We found a bunch of tunnels! It's a whooole area and it's big!" Raph held out his arms for emphasis. 

"You know we're not allowed to leave the lair." Leo stated accusingly. 

"Blah, blah! Only if he finds out. Now come on..!" Raph goaded, he had no intention to sit and do nothing all day. 

"It is the best place ever for turtle-tag!" Mikey chimed in, which Leo had to admit, sounded pretty great. He glanced back towards the kitchen where their father was last seen. He wanted to go but.. 

"I dunno guys.. sensei would be mad.." 

"Yea, IF he finds out. Which is why we're not gonna let him, duh. We'll sneak out and be back before he knows it~" Raph said confidently. He and Mikey had done it before when they stumbled upon it, and so far their father was none the wiser. 

"It's not even far. What do you say Donnie? You comin' right?" 

"…" He glanced at his brothers, Mikey looked hopeful and Raph expectantly, Leo seemed slightly unsure... but he could tell he definitely wanted to go. 

"I dunno.. I was just reading about Neptune and-" 

"Not that stuff again…" Raph groaned, partly because Donnie was the only one who had learned to read on his own as of yet, and it was boring, nothing to do with jealousy or anything, not one bit if you asked Raph. 

"You can read later, we have to go now or sensei will notice. Besides.. you can… map it out or whatever." He quickly added, trying to bribe his younger brother.

Don's face lit up, now that did sound fun. "Okay, hold on." He jumped to his feet to get his drawing block and a pen. 

"Finally!" Raph grinned now that his siblings were more or less aboard with the idea, now they just had to sneak out…

 _25 minutes later…_

"See? I told you so!" Raph grinned wide as he gestured to their newly found playing ground. This was definitely big enough to run around at with tunnels to hide in, and no risk to knocking things over and making sensei mad. It was perfect.

"I have to admit... this is pretty great." Leo said and smiled as he looked around the big area and wide tunnels that led all over the place, Raph gloated and practically rolled in the praises, since he found it and all. He hadn't been this proud about something since he managed to beat Leo to getting a training drill right. 

"Yea.. let's play turtle-tag! Cause it's the perfect place for it!" Mikey announced. "And I wanna start!" He waved his hand excitedly. 

"Okay fine, Don?" They looked at Donnie, who was already busy drawing in his little notebook. 

"Huh? Oh yea.. I'm ready." He quickly said and smiled, not really paying attention to what had been said. He wondered how big this place really was, and if they could potentially get lost? A map would be good to make, and fun. 

"Okay I'm counting! 1.. ..2… 5" Mikey closed his eyes and turned around. 

"And no peaking!" Raph said before he darted off in the tunnel straight ahead. 

Donnie wasn't sure what they were playing, but it looked like hide and seek, or something similar, looking around he decided to go left, as his brother was least likely to go that way, Mikey preferred to turn right, statistically speaking. 

Which left Leo going right. 

"..3.. 7.. ..4.. uh.. 5.. 10!" Mikey turned around and grinned. Looking around there were three directions, not hard to guess they probably picked one each... which meant it probably didn't matter where he went. So he decided to go straight ahead. 

"Coming!" He yelled as a final warning before sprinting off. 

Don heard the slightly distant yell of his brother, wondering if it wasn't a bit too soon for hide and seek. 

"Oh well.." Not that it mattered, now he had a bit of time to himself. He got his notebook and started mapping out as he walked. Some places had caved in and were simply dead ends while others didn't quite seem to end. 

"Hmm.. We should probably add some kinda rule where our play area ends.." He noted as the tunnels kept on going. He had a gnawing feeling that it would be easy to get lost in here.. 

"Ew.." Don made a disgusted face and walked far around a dead rat lying there. He hoped he wouldn't get sick, the place looked filthy. Well, everywhere was filthy, it was a sewer. But at least their home was nicer, and cleaner. 

After walking what felt like forever as he kept drawing he suddenly heard the pattering of running feet. He looked to the tunnel on his right he just passed. 

"…!" Suddenly Raph burst out of the tunnel. 

"Found you!" Before Donnie could react Raph dunked him on the shoulder and yelled "Tag! You're it!" Then darted off cackling through the tunnel Donnie had just come from. 

"Oh, guess we're playing tag." 

He looked towards the tunnel Raph had come from, most likely speaking, Leo and Mikey would be in that direction, so he decided to go down that way, exploring as he went. There was no real hurry or need for running until he found one of them. 

As he walked he found an interesting tunnel along the way, it was quite narrow, but it seemed less refined, more like a natural cave. His curiosity peaked, the game with his brothers all but forgotten as he gingerly climbed into the narrow space. 

"Woah.." It was bigger on the inside, walls expanding out as some humans had dug into the rock around, they had at some point given up on the place though and not gone through with completing the tunnel. 

It was official, Raph was bored. Nothing was happening, it had been forever since he had tagged Don, he had seen Mikey twice, since they both ran in opposing directions upon meeting each time he was pretty sure neither of them were it. Rounding a corner, he spotted Leo sneaking around.

"Hey!" 

"!" Leo started running. 

"Wait, I'm not it!" Raph called back and Leo stopped, looking suspiciously at him. 

"Why would I believe you?" Raph huffed. … Granted, there had been times when he had pulled that stunt, but this wasn't one of them. 

"Trust me, it isn't me, I'm bored! Anyone been tagged since I tagged Don..?" 

That made Leo paus. "I haven't seen Don, at all." 

"Great, so he wandered off somewhere and forgot about us!" 

"That's not true..! I think.. I mean.. Mikey might be it?" 

"Nope! And haven't been tagged either after I got Leo!" Mikey piped up and poked his head out. Nearly scaring the living daylights out of his older brothers. 

"Mikey! Don't.. do that!" 

"So where is he?" 

"Uh.. dunno? DONNIE?!" They all started walking around yelling, maybe he'd just taken a nap somewhere. Unlikely, but you never knew. 

"Donnie! Come out!" 

Donnie blearily opened his eyes, he felt disoriented, the last thing he could remember was hearing a loud crack. He gasped for breath and coughed violently as the dust was falling around him, then it hit him like a train-wreck, there had been a cave-in. He couldn't quite see clearly, everything was a blur and he felt numb, was he in shock? Is this what shock felt like? He was pretty sure this was it. 

"…" Weakly he tried to move, only he couldn't. He was stuck. That's when the pain suddenly started to set it, it wasn't just pain, it was agony. He screamed out, in both fear and pain, his dry throat causing him to cough again, which brought on more pain. His vision was going black around the edges, and he wasn't quite sure if he imagined hearing his brothers or not... .. He hoped they'd find him. He hoped father would find him. 

"Guys I found him!" Mikey yelled out after nearly thirty minutes of searching. "Oh my.." He gaped and stared at the scene in disbelief. Mikey had found the narrow cave entrance, thinking it looked interesting, he thought maybe Donnie would too, and climbed inside. He wasn't prepared for what he would see though. 

"Guys! Come! Hurry! Hurry!" He yelled almost desperately, feeling the panic starting to set in. As his brothers came running he started to cry. 

"Donnie is.. Donnie is.." He sniffed and pointed. 

Raph was the first to get inside, worried about why Mikey was so upset. He felt similar when he laid eyes upon their brother, Donnie was pinned down to the ground, and a lot of big rocks were crushing him by the waist down, it looked really painful. He rushed forward. 

"Donnie! Donnie?! Can you hear me?" He grabbed his brothers head and tried to wake him up. He froze when he felt something slick. 

".. Blood, there is blood.." He felt himself shaking and backing off slightly. This.. this was all his fault, if he hadn't.. he shouldn't have convinced them to go out, shouldn't have gone to this place... It was his fault Donnie was stuck and hurt. 

".. I'll.. I'll get sensei!" Leo yelled and ran. Mikey didn't know what to do and simply stood there with teary eyes. 

"Is.. is he.." 

"I.. I don't know.." He wasn't exactly a doctor, but Donnie wasn't moving and blood wasn't good, he knew that much. 

It felt like forever, but the relief when their father came running was substantial. They were quickly ordered to return home, the place was far too unstable for them to remain in.

 _In the lair…_

"What's taking so long..?" Mikey asked worriedly as they waited in the couch, they were all shaken up after what they had seen. Mikey was pretty sure he was going to have nightmares. 

"I'm sure they'll be back any minute now.." Leo said, he didn't sound so sure though, and felt small and unhelpful. Raph felt like a black hole was about to swallow him. 

After sending his remaining sons home, Splinter had worked quickly but carefully to free his fourth son from the rocks safely. He was relieved to find he was still alive, but the damage to his shell was a major one. The others were mostly minor cuts and bruising, that he could treat. But shells were a new area altogether, he tried not to panic has he carefully lifted his son up to bring him home for treatment. He'd had the turtles for a good few years now but he'd never had to repair a broken shell before. 

Ignoring his sons' questions and attempt to crowd him in order to ask how their brother was, he rushed off to his room, while his sons understandably were very worried and traumatised, their sibling's health had to come first. 

Gently putting him down he attended to the wounds and the bleeding. Afterwards he started skimming through the books with turtle anatomy and vet care he'd collected, party because Donatello really liked these kinds of books, but also because they might come in handy. Now if they could tell him about shells they'd be thousand times worth their value. 

Leo stared as their father darted of excusing himself and brushing them off, that didn't sit well with him at all, he tried not to shake as he carefully followed. Peaking inside the room he could see his sensei pouring over books, their brother was lying on his plastron on the bed, from his angle it didn't seem like he was in bad shape. His father had added some band aids over the cuts as well. 

"Sensei..?" 

Splinter paused and looked to Leonardo, he forced an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry my son, but I'm in a hurry to help your brother, he is not well. I must go and find some things for him. Could you make sure he does not move?" He questioned, he knew it was a lot to ask of a 7 year old, but he had little choice. 

"Yea..! I can do that!" Leo seemed slightly less worried, their father would fix this, he wouldn't let anything bad happen. Leo felt confident their sensei could do absolutely anything, he was sure everything would be fine and nodded. 

"Thank you my son. Make sure no one touches his shell. I'll be back soon." With that he got up, of all things, he needed to get some boat resin. 

Raph sat in the couch hugging his knees, occasionally glancing towards Don's room. He didn't dare enter or even go peak, afraid of what he would see. It was clear his brother wasn't dead, but they didn't say he was okay either… He stared down at his feet, feeling scared. He would not cry, he would not cry.. 

As he regained consciousness there were two things he became acutely aware of. First, his back felt like it was on fire, the pain was indescribable. Second, there was an awful smell, it burned in his nose and made him want to get away from whatever it was that smelled so awfully bad and strong. 

As he moved his arm to try push himself up to see what was going on, he felt a familiar hand stop him. 

"My son, you should not move, keep still." 

"Father..?" He croaked out, feeling dizzy and wanting to puke, the smell wasn't helping. 

"Here take this. It will help, for the pain." 

He looked down at the hand in front of him, it was holding some pills, painkillers, he thought and nodded. It was painful to swallow, but he was grateful for the cold water. He drank as much as he could while his sensei helped him. 

"Good. Now rest." 

".. What happened...?" He heard his father mumble something, but he couldn't quite make it out as he felt the tiredness pulling him back down again. 

The first week had been a lull to Donnie, he was mostly on painkillers and felt tired and out of it. His memory was fragmented and blurry at best, but he had pieced together that there had been a cave-in. His shell had cracked, and his father had repaired it with resin, hence that awful smell which faintly still lingered in the room. Raph had also informed him the crack across his shell looked 'wicked cool'. He wasn't sure if that had been earlier today or a day ago, maybe two. Everything blurred together when you were high on painkillers. Right now, he just felt thirsty. 

It was quite a challenge to drink, given his injury, he could only lie flat on his plastron at all times, with strict orders to not move unless absolutely necessary. Tilting his head up was straining and it was just downright uncomfortable to eat and drink in that position. He was also pretty sure he was on some very strong painkillers, he felt numb, it felt like he couldn't feel anything below where he presumed his injury were at, and they made him so sleepy... He sighed as he drifted off again. 

Michelangelo groaned as he stretched out his legs on the floor. 

"When's Donnie gonna play with us again? Only 3 all the time is no fun…" He complained. Donnie had been bedridden for nearly 3 weeks now. 3 weeks were way too long for someone to be sick. He couldn't believe how Don could do it. If he had to stay in bed that long he'd blow up. 

"Sensei said the injury takes time to heal, so we just have to wait until it's better." Leo lectured. "Now it's your turn to be the princess." He informed Mikey and handed him the makeshift insect toy they had announced as the princess in their current play. 

"But I want it to be better now…" That way Donnie could play the princess as well, so he didn't have to as often. Donatello usually ended up playing the princess since you didn't actually have to do a lot, it was mostly watching as the good guys and bad guy battled each other. Donnie would take that time to read while he waited for his short part in the play, sometimes they had to poke him when he was up. Also, just watching Leo as he played captain Ryan wasn't all that fun unless you were the bad guy wrecking stuff or the sidekick to fight the bad guy as he did his monologing speeches. 

But also because he missed his brother's company terribly, he wondered if he had anything to do in there... just lying there. Then an idea struck him, Mikey decided that he would keep Donnie company at least once a day and read comics to him. He couldn't really read quite yet, but he would make up the dialog as he went along based on the pretty pictures. He was sure Donnie would like that. Mikey loved it, that way the same comic was never the same story. 

Splinter peaked inside the room to make sure his son was okay, and smiled at what he found. 

Donatello was sleepily lying in his bed while Michelangelo sat on a chair beside it, 'reading' excitedly from the comic and showing him the pictures, even tilting the comic to try get the right angle for his brother. He decided to check back a little later, his medicine wasn't due just yet. 

He had decided it was time to try tap down on the painkillers to see how he was actually doing. With no medical expertise there wasn't much else to indicate if it was better or not. He didn't dare remove the support and reinforcement on his sons shell, or let him move around until he was sure all was well. 

Donnie was bored. Utterly bored, as the medicine dosage had gone down, so his awareness and wakefulness had gone up. His senses in his shell had come back some too over the last week, and a dull ache along his spine told him the pain was too. He was sure it would have been a lot worse a few weeks ago, he just hoped he would be able to sit up soon and get rid of the weird numbness. 

The day his father took him off his painkillers altogether was a very mixed day of emotions. 

His father had declared to try go off them completely, since they made him so fuzzy it was hard to determine how he was actually feeling. If the pain wasn't too bad he could try moving and maybe sitting up. Donnie couldn't help but feel relieved and happy when the pain didn't come back in full force, there was an ache, but it wasn't bad. He was sure it shouldn't warrant any more painkillers, he was sick of being drugged out, he could probably sit and walk with that. 

That relief changed though when he was supposed to move, he had been quite still for a long time, the weird thing was though that despite apparently being off the painkillers he still felt weirdly numb, maybe there were some lingering after effects, or more healing to be done, he wasn't sure. He'd never had these sorts of things, he wanted to read about it as soon as he could sit again though. 

"Do you feel any pain?" 

"A little, but nothing bad." He declared and smiled a little. "But I still don't feel anything in some places.. is that a side effect?" 

"Nothing, my son?" Splinter questioned and wondered what he meant by that. 

"The painkillers took the feeling away, and it hasn't come back everywhere." He explained. 

Splinter was not sure what to make of that, but he carefully instructed his son to carefully move his legs out of bed and sit up, slowly. 

"Take one leg at a time if it feels difficult." 

"I am. It's hard when I can't feel them." He grunted in frustration as he moved his legs one at a time, then he used his elbows to push up and turn, only to realise he hadn't actually moved his legs at all. They were still lying there under the blankets. 

"I was sure I.." 

Splinter felt a sense of alarm, could there be something wrong with his legs? But he was sure they weren't injured, his son had never complained of any pain in them.. A slight sense of panic settled over him, he didn't show it as he pulled the blankets back completely. 

"Do you feel anything at all..?" He started feeling along his son's legs and pinched the skin. 

Donnie shook his head. "No, but that's temporary, right..?" He said with a hopeful tone, he was starting to feel scared, he'd read a bit about health problems and injuries in the health book… 

"My son, they are only meant to remove pain, but not to this extent." He explained as calmly as he was able. "Would you try move them for me? Or your toes." 

Donnie tried, he really, really tried. He tried kicking and trashing his legs and wriggling his toes, But nothing was happening. He angled his head to try see his legs, they were just lying there, like a ragdoll. 

"Father..? Am I.. am I lame..?" He choked out after trying and failing for a full fifteen minutes. 

They had come to the conclusion his right leg had no feeling at all, while he only had a patch on the left inner tight where he could feel something, the rest was dead weight he just couldn't feel or move. 

Splinter wasn't sure where he had read about being lame, but it certainly looked that way. He grabbed an anatomy vet book and looked through the turtle pictures, lameness would suggest there were injuries to his spine... and then he realised as he watched the skeleton images. His shell was probably his spine. Of course, a turtle's spine is merged to the shell. So the crack must have gone deep enough to… 

Even if he had known properly there was a risk for spinal injury, he couldn't have prevented it, but he could have at least prepared his son for the possibility. 

"Yes, my son. I'm.. I'm afraid that might be so." He said, barely containing his shock and grief. 

Donatello cried then, he was pretty sure it was the hardest he'd ever cried in his entire life, he whimpered as his father hugged him close, trying to say soothing words. He buried his nose in the fur and cried some more. 

Splinter chest felt heavy as he sat down with his remaining sons in the living room, they all looked at him with worried eyes. He knew he had to tell them the news, he wasn't sure how they were going to take it though. 

"My sons, I have something very important to tell you, there is going to be a new change here, and it is not going to be easy." 

They could feel that whatever their father was about to tell them were serious, whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good. 

"Is Donnie gonna die?!" Mikey exclaimed. Misinterpreting his father's words somewhat dramatically. 

"… No. No my son, he is not. But things aren't going to be the same. You see, his legs no longer work, so he will not be able to walk." 

"What? You mean like… never? Like never ever?" Mikey stared at his father and hugged his teddybear, Leo sat there in silence, seeming lost in thought. 

"Yes, most likely. This means Donatello is going to need a lot of our help, do you understand?" 

They nodded. "We'll do our best sensei!" Leo quickly added and seemed determined, he smiled. His oldest son was always quick to be the responsible one. However, Splinter couldn't help but notice how uncharacteristically silent Raphael was. 

"Raphael, is everything alright?" 

His son averted his eyes and glared down at the ground. "No." Then he fled to his room while is brothers looked on in confusion. 

"What's wrong with Raph..?" Mikey asked. 

"I'm sure your brother only needs some time..." 

He heard someone knock on his door, he was not in the mood. 

"Go away…" 

"Raphael, are you well?" 

Raph flinched when he heard it was Splinter. "Yes! … No.." He wasn't sure anymore.. 

"May I come inside?" 

".. Okay." Raph quickly wiped his face with the back of his hand and watched as his father opened the door. Slowly coming inside to sit by him on the bed. 

"What troubles you my son?" Splinter carefully put his hand on his son's shoulder, feeling concerned, he had a suspicion this had to do with Donatello's accident. Raphael had been acting more distant as of late, and that was starting to become alarming. 

The silence dragged on for several minutes, Raph was shaking and he wasn't sure what he wanted to say, the words were hard to get out and it made him frustrated. 

"I.. I just…" 

"Yes? You can tell me anything." 

"… You'll hate me…" He mumbled and hugged his legs closer. 

"I would never hate you my son. No matter what, I'll always love all of you." He said and placed his arms in an invitation for a hug. He knew Raph would rather take the first initiative, if he wanted a hug. 

".. Okay.." He sniffed and crawled into his father's lap, hugging him tightly. 

"It's my fault Donnie got hurt…" 

Splinter was surprised by his sons confession, he wondered where in the world he had gotten that idea, from the story they had told him that day, none of them were even there when it happened. 

"What makes you say that?" 

"Cause.. cause I found that place.. and I.. I showed them.. it's my fault we snuck out.. and went there and.. and if I hadn't.. Donnie.. Donnie wouldn't have gotten hurt.." He sobbed into his father's arms. 

"Oh Raphael… It is not your fault, never your fault." He hugged in closer. "You could not have known, while you shouldn't go out on your own, you had nothing to do with that cave-in, or Donnie walking into that tunnel.." He took hold of his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. 

"Do you understand me? This was not your fault." 

"…. O-okay.." He sniffed, starting to feel slightly better from his father's words. 

"I'm sure your brother would be very sad if he knew you thought it was your fault. But you know what could make things better?" 

Raphael quickly looked up at that, he definitely wanted things better. "What..?" 

"How about we make something for Donnie? Something to cheer him up, I'm sure you'd know what he likes." He suggested, giving something for Raphael to do and keep him occupied as well as cheering his brother up would hopefully help them deal with this. 

"So, why don't you go get your brothers, and you can decide on something to make for your brother?" 

Raph smiled then and nodded, looking more determined than sad. Splinter smiled back and then let him run off, he knew these first weeks wouldn't be easy. But he'd do his best to try keep his sons' spirits up. 

Donnie got to finally sit up, now he could read his books properly again. But he wasn't as happy about it as he thought he would have been. His eyes were puffy and he felt hollow and sad when looking at his legs he would most likely never walk on ever again. he felt empty, like this wasn't really happening to him, when he had started to accept his new reality his emotions had wreaked havoc inside him. He was sad and angry, he had sometimes taken it out on sensei, or his brothers. He would feel really bad afterwards though... and apologise as he cried promising to not do it again. 

He regretted going into that tunnel so badly… if he only hadn't done it, if he had only just not explored so much and participated in the tag instead. Maybe he would have had his legs then. If only he hadn't agreed to go out and play in the first place, he should have known it was a bad idea… Only, he couldn't have known, there was no way he could have predicted that outcome, that he would find that specific place, or that it would cave in. It was something he was just going to have to accept. It was really hard to do though. 

During his second week of what felt like misery, his father entered his room with a little smile on his face. Don looked quizzically up at him, wondering what he was up to. 

"Hello Donatello." 

"Hello…" 

"You look a little bored, would you like to come out and play with your brothers? You've been staying in here all day." 

"I.. I'm not sure I want to today... ..I just can't really..." 

"Oh are you sure? I'm not so sure about that…" His smile was back, and it confused Donnie. "Michelangelo, you may." He got out of the way, and there standing in front of.. something was his younger brother, Mikey looked a little nervous, but smiled timidly as he pushed the thing inside. 

"… What's that..?" Donnie put his book aside and sat up more properly. 

Mikey beamed up at him. "A wheelchair." He said happily as he pulled the blanket off. 

Donnie inspected it, it.. looked like a chair, with wheels. It was duct taped in some places and the seat had been replaced, but it was indeed a wheelchair. 

"Would you like some help getting into it?" His sensei offered, and Donnie nodded after a moment. 

Raph sighed as he put down the controller. Where was Mikey anyway? Speaking of, he suddenly came running looking all excited. Leo and Raph both looked up in puzzlement. 

"Guys! We should ALL play some videogames to celebrate!" he cheered. 

"Celebrate? What are we celebrating?" They looked at each other and then at Mikey. Their sensei was coming out of Donnie's room then, smiling. 

"How about Donatello being able to move around the lair on his own?" 

Leo and Raph stared as Donnie rolled himself out of his room, smiling shyly and knitting his hands together when he stopped. ".. What do you think…?" He asked, feeling slightly nervous about the change. 

It didn't take long for his brothers to show wide grins. 

"It's awesome! You can finally go where you want without sensei!" Raph cheered. As no one else could actually carry Donnie he had needed Splinter if he wanted to relocate, which was usually his bed, the couch or the bathroom. Not a lot of options. He had now gotten some much needed independency and was grateful to have it. 

"It was mine and Mikey's secret project for the past week." Splinter informed them and patted Mikey's head. Mikey had gotten the idea and asked him if they could build one, one of the characters in his comic had had something similar. Mikey's bright smile was infectious, and they spent the evening playing some videogames to celebrate Don's small freedom. 

Donnie felt good about being back to training the next day, it wasn't the same training his brothers were doing, it never would be again... but he no longer had to sit leaning against a wall reading and feeling useless. He had to learn how to get in and out of his wheelchair in all sorts of positions and situations, as well as start building up his upper body's strength. 

He vowed that what he couldn't do that his brothers could, he'd make up for in other areas. He had a feeling he was heading that way even before the accident, given his growing interests.


	2. Life Goals

Somewhere along the line, Donnie had decided to become a doctor. Maybe not an official one with a degree, given their circumstances. But a self-taught doctor none the less. They could really use a medic, there was no one they could turn to if they were injured, and he deemed himself to be the best turtle for the job, given his interest and ease for learning. 

Besides his brothers... well let's just say those topics and the requirements weren't their strongest suit. 

Things became easier once he'd built a laptop and connected them to the internet, giving him access to more knowledge than he could ever consume. He sure was glad he was also an engineer, an inventor and chemist at the same time. Some things you didn't actually need legs for, which he was immensely grateful for. It also made it easier on their dad. 

As he grew older he'd also started upgrading his wheelchair as he learned to build, trying to make maneuvering easier. They'd built some ramps around the lair as well and adjusted his work tables and shelves. 

His brothers did help him as assistants on occasion, when he needed to reach or get somewhere he just couldn't do completely on his own. It didn't always have to do with not being able to walk. Sometimes it was just about needing three arms, or four. 

he vowed to never let his brothers get so seriously damaged as he did as a child, ever. He'd do anything to prevent that, or heal them back to top shape if it ever did.


	3. Klunk

Mikey brings a cat home one day, he promises it's only for a few days, until they can find it a new home. April helps with buying some pet store supplies. 

One week later the cat's name is Klunk, and still there, as they all observe. 

She gets her own bed too, she completely ignores the gift though and prefers Mikey's bed. 

Two months later and they can practically say klunk is part of the family and the whole looking-for-a-new-home-thing has faded into oblivion. 

Mikey loves his new pet, Klunk is a great companion and loves to snuggle up in his lap while he watches TV. She's a real lap-cat. Or when she keeps him company in the kitchen during late evenings. Klunk seems to be adapting to the lair really well too, he knows Raph pampers her when he thinks no one is watching, she spends a bit of time with Donnie on and off too. Her relationship with Leo and Splinter though seems to be that of respectful distance, she greets them happily when she sees them. 

She is not in the kitchen now though, it's feeding time and he's called her a few times. 

"Klunk~! Here kitty, kitty!" She doesn't come in to the kitchen, but Donnie does. 

"Hi, sorry I'm gonna start on dinner soon." Mikey comments. 

Don shrugs. "It's alright. I'll just get some cereal, and I brought the cat too." He points out. 

"Hm?" Mikey then looks down and realises she's hitched a ride in Donnie's lap. 

"She keeps bugging me, you should play with her or something so I can do my project in peace." He points out. Mikey looks at the cat, happily pawing and purring where she is. 

"Heh, well, she loves to sit on people's laps. You sit all the time so your lap is available, plus I think she enjoys the ride. Aren't you~?" he says and cuddles with Klunk. "Oh uh Donnie. Your leg..." He makes a grimace as he notices. 

"Hm?" Don looks down, only to find she is also digging her very sharp claws into his thigh, breaking the skin. "Ah! Just great. Off with you..!" Don unceremoniously takes the cat and dumps her on the floor, she happily walks away to her food bowl. 

"Geez, sorry I didn't see it sooner, but you don't feel that right..? I mean you didn't even notice." 

"No, but I wouldn't notice a sword stabbed through either." 

".. Good point." 

"I need to get this cleaned before it gets infected.. and you should look up on how to trim her claws." He grumbled and moved out of the kitchen to get some antiseptic and band aids. 

"Hi Donnie!" April greets as she enters the lair. Don jolts and quickly puts a hand over his claw marks. 

"Oh.. Hiii… April. What are you doing here..?" He smiles, trying to erase his earlier grumpiness somewhat in the face of their sudden guest. 

"You said you could help me with my math..?" 

"Oh! Right! Sorry, right I just.. forgot the time. I'm just gonna get this sorted and we can get started." 

"What did you do..?" She says upon noticing the claw marks as he moves to wheel away. 

"Mikey's cat. She has sharp claws and likes to spend time in people's laps." He explains. "We were just agreeing on how Mikey's going to learn how to cut them, right Mikey?" He points out when Mikey comes to greet April. 

"Huh? Oh right! Yea.. Ehehe.." He smiles in an apologetic way as he scratches his neck. 

"I can help with that. I'll teach Mikey how to cut them while you fix that." April suggests, and drags Mikey along to the kitchen to catch his little pet while Don treats his small cuts. 

After that though Donnie decides it safest to have a blanket over his lap. Just in case. Glancing in the mirror he also realises it has the benefit of not showing his visibly thinner legs, as well as keeping them warm. 

Klunk sits happily purring in Aprils lap while she shows Mikey how and where to cut her claws. She is surprisingly well behaved and enjoys the attention. 

Leo looks at Don and his covered legs for a few moments before deciding to ask. 

"What are you wearing..?" 

"Cat protection." 

".. Oh." 

Yupp. Klunk is not leaving anytime soon and they've all decided to just roll with it at this point.


	4. Mutation Day

It was the boys 15th birthday, or at least mutation day. Which was sort of like a birthday. 

Today was the day, cake had been served, or well, something close to a cake, and Splinter had as usual recapped on how they came to be on Mikey's request. They nodded at each other, then Leo cleared his throat. 

"Sensei?" 

"Yes?" 

"I.. we were wondering... since we're fifteen and all.. if maybe.. We could go topside?" He finished. 

"Pleeease!" They all looked pleadingly at him. Splinter sighed, he knew this question would come… 

"No, it is dangerous up there. You could be seen, or worse, captured or killed." He said firmly. 

"But sensei! We're already fifteen!" Leo objected. "I'm sure we can hold our own in a fight." 

"Is that so?" 

"Yes! I mean.. that's why you have been training us? Right? So we can defend ourselves. We can't stay cooped up down here forever, pleeease?" 

".. You may have a point… Would you agree to any rules I impose, no matter what?" 

"Yes! So can we pleeeease go?" They looked at him with hopefully puppy eyes, it was hard to say no to that. 

Splintered considered his sons for a moment while stroking his beard. 

"Hmm.. Very well.. you may go." 

"YES!" They all exclaimed and started to get up. 

"But!" He interrupted them, taking a deep breath. "Not Donatello." 

They all froze. "WHAT?! Why not?" Don stared in disbelief, was he really gonna let his brothers go but not him? 

"You three may go, on the condition that you are back before ten and stay out of sight." 

"But what about Donnie?! He should go to! I can carry him easily!" Raph exclaimed. 

"Donatello is not ready for combat, I do not want you to take him with you before you have more experience. It would be too dangerous since you have never been there yourselves. Those are the terms." 

They all looked dejected. Glancing at Donnie, Raph steeled himself. He really, really wanted to go but… 

"In that case I'm not-" But before he could finish the sentence Donnie stopped him. 

"No. You should go. I know you really want to, and you shouldn't just because I can't." While he hated it, he could see his father's reasoning. Whether they liked it or not, he would be a liability at best if combat should arise. He had trained, he could use a weapon just like his brothers, but there was just no getting around the fact that he wasn't as mobile as his siblings. 

Donnie tried to smile and wave a bit as he watched them go, he tried to not look sad, but he could tell they saw through his attempts. Mikey gave him a sad look, promising to bring a souvenir back. 

He drew a heavy sigh as they went out of sight, better get back to building on his latest invention… 

"My son!" Splinter placed a hand on his shoulder before he could wheel away. "I'm sure there will be a day when you too can go." He said in an attempt to console him. 

".. Right. I'll.. be in my lab.." He mumbled out and wheeled away towards his lab. Life just wasn't fair, he felt like the day he lost his legs all over again.


	5. Meeting April

Leo, Mikey and Raph were back, they had all gathered in the dojo and they seemed to have something urgent going on. Donnie decided to go listen, he really wanted to know how it was, and what was going on. He wheeled in as quietly as he could. 

"Sensei we have to rescue her!" 

"Yea that girl and her dad were kidnapped! 

"And you didn't stop them?" 

"Well.. we tried! And we would have.. if Raph hadn't jumped right into me and stabbed me in the shell!" 

"Not my fault you stepped into where I was landing! 

"I wouldn't have if Mikey had kept his nunchakus out of my range!" 

"Yame! It seems clear I did not train you to fight as a team but rather as individuals. Perhaps we should try again next year." 

"Next year?! No way! Besides if we wanna save her we have to do it now!" 

"…." Splinter seemed to hesitate. Don looked from his brothers to his father, from what he could tell there had been some kind of fight, and they had seen people be kidnapped. 

He decided to join the conversation then. "I think you should save them. Please let them? We can come up with a strategy this time." 

".. .." Splinter sighed heavily, but ultimately agreed to it. 

They came up with a plan, Donnie helped to, even if he couldn't actually be there he would help them in other ways, he made gear so they could climb the walls of the base that they found after some scouting, and he helped instruct them how to rig the van they stole from one of the goons, and built a tiny bomb for it. 

Now he just had to anxiously wait for his brothers to come home so he could find out how it went… Maybe he should invent something so they could actually communicate in real time? That would be very useful, and he would be more useful. While waiting for his brothers he started to draw up some plans and specifications to pass the time. 

April did not have a good day, it was a weird day to say the least. 

"Come on we can't just sit here! We have to do something!" She exclaimed. 

"April, there is nothing we can do, we're in a prison." Her father reasoned. She wasn't going to go down without fighting, when one of the aliens entered the cell she tried to attack him. He didn't even budge. 

"…." Kirby watched the alien leave after dumping April back down on the bench. 

"Or.. I guess we can just sit here.." She said awkwardly after a moment of silence. 

"..?" April heard commotion outside and looked through the tiny window.

"The lizards!" She exclaimed in surprise when a green face appeared in front of her. 

"Uhm.. we're turtles. I'm Leo and this is-" 

"Not now! Just get her out of there!" Raph yelled as he accidentally tripped into Leo when avoiding laser shots of all things, why did they have laser guns in the first place?! Mikey was yelling something about 'I told you so', through the noise.

"Uh.. I dunno how to open this.." Leo stared at the door with a weird looking control panel on it. 

"Oh for, just!" Raph stabbed his sai into the lock violently a couple of times, the door opened.. But the aliens had grabbed the girl and her dad, running out the prisons other door. 

".. After them!" 

Mikey stares up at the giant mutant in front of them. 

"You got to be kidding…" Leo stares at the angry thing, it clearly has a grudge on them, and when it speaks he realises it's the guy they took the van from. 

"Snakeweed!" Mikey proclaims. 

"What?" 

"Yea, cause his name was snake and he is a weed so I thought-" 

"We get it." Raph grunted and rushed towards the mutant. Leo looked around, he saw the helicopter on the roof, if they didn't act soon they would get away… 

"Raph! Mikey! You guys take this guy, I'll get the girl and her dad!" He yelled as he dashed off towards the roof and the helicopter. 

"Thanks guys.." April gave them a smile as they were standing by her window. 

"Don't mention it." Leo smiled, feeling like he'd done a difference, like a hero… well, nearly anyway. 

"Sorry about your dad though…" 

"Yea…" She sighed, how was she going to get him back now..? 

"Don't worry we can totally help you get him back! Right guys!" Mikey chipped in, which gave him a glare from his brothers. Leo wasn't sure it was a good idea to promise the girl to get her dad back. He wasn't sure if they could keep that or not.. But to help her would be the right thing to do.. so he nodded. 

"Yea, we'll help! Don't worry about it, we'll find him." 

April smiled then. "Really, thanks uh.." 

"Leo. This is Mikey and that's Raph." 

"Okay got it, name's April." She shook Leo's hand, and then watched them disappear. 

Donnie met them halfway in the lair as they returned, feeling relieved only after they at let him check them over and treated the minor scuffs from combat. He was surprised how undamaged they were considering the description of LASER guns. 

They simply let him fuss over them as Mikey told the tale about their successes and losses. This was after all one of the things Donnie could help with, making sure they were well, so brushing him off was just not on the table. So, obligatory post-mission health check-up it was. Raph couldn't help but smile a bit as he saw Donnie fuss over a small burn on Leo from a near hit of a laser. Taking his medic job very seriously. 

"You LIVE in the SEWERS?" April said as they walked along the tunnels of the sewage system, pinching her nose together in disgust. 

"Well yea? I mean, where else would we live? Hard to hide when you're a big mutant turtle~" Mikey pointed out gingerly as they walked along, not bothered by the smell at all. 

"It smells really bad..." 

"Really? I can't tell! Well, I know it's not sunshine and roses but.. you get used to it! Though gotta say this tunnel is definitely one of the worse ones." He had to admit. "Our home is a lot better, promise. We actually clean that place." 

The first thing that surprised April was how surprisingly nice their home looked, for being in the sewers, she'd honestly expected worse. They seemed to have built and modified the place, they even had a kitchen. The second thing was that there was a giant rat, a giant talking one. She should probably have been surprised. But it didn't actually top her adventures the previous day. 

"A giant rat. Is your dad?" She whispered and stared in disbelief, before feeling a bit rude and snapping out of the staring. "Uhm.. Sorry, my name is April O'Neil..." 

She politely introduced herself, and actually found the rat to be very nice and polite to talk to. She wasn't really sure what she had expected, but this probably wasn't it... He seemed like a really good, likable dad. Once you got past the whole giant rat thing. 

Raph looked around and grunted. "Now where's he hiding at?" 

"Probably the lab?" Mikey suggested. "I'll go get him~!" 

Moments later they could hear a yell and a protest. 

"Mikey! Hey! What the- stop!" Moments later he came rolling out of the lab driving the wheelchair in front of him, with Donnie holding onto the handles for dear life. Mikey just seemed a bit overexcited. "Sorry bro! But no time for science right now! We have a guest!" And he secretly enjoyed an excuse to drive the wheelchair and catch a ride with it along the way. 

They paused in the living room by the others. "And this is Donnie, our bro." 

The fourth turtle which she hadn't even known existed up till that point then took the time to look up and noticed April. 

"Oh.. Uhm.. Hi." He blushed and looked at her in surprise. Temporarily forgetting to be mad at his younger brother. 

"I'm D-Donatello, but.. Donnie is fine." He said slightly nervously to her, wanting to at least attempt to make his own introduction. This was the first time he had seen a human up close, especially such a pretty one. 

April looked surprised, but then smiled. "Hi, April." She glanced at his wheelchair and assumed that's why he hadn't been with his brothers, he was probably disabled. A disabled mutant, somehow that looked rather odd in her mind. It was rude to judge though. 

She felt the silence drag on for a while, until it started to feel slightly awkward. Leo realised they should probably have told April about their dad and Donnie, and probably given them a heads up as well that they were bringing a human down. In hindsight, it felt like an obvious thing to do. 

April decided to break the silence first. "Sooo… you guys will help me find my dad then?" 

"Is that what we are.. Oh! Yea… I've been looking up potential bases for these… weird aliens. And I've found some potential ones' you guys can check out." Don quickly saved himself, wishing his older brother could have at least have had the grace to mention that they were also looking up bases to save the girls dad. Not just to take out the treat. 

"I've also been working on some upgrades that'll make it easier to do our missions." He smiled brightly then, all nervousness forgotten when the task at hand was in focus. Trying not to give Leo a glare as he mouthed: 'Sorry, I forgot to mention that'. Behind April's back. 

"I'll… get a map and we can look the areas over as a team." Leo stated and darted off. 

"And I'll get the snacks and drinks!" If they were going to have some serious meeting, Mikey wanted some snacks to go with it. 

"I'll go get the files and my laptop." Donnie stated when it was just the three of them standing there after Splinter walked off to the kitchen to make tea. After making sure everything was in order of course. And giving Leo that look that told him he was in for a little lecture in the near future. Leo was pretty sure it was going to be about keeping people on the same page… 

"…." Raph and April sat in silence, left alone with not really anything to do as they waited for everyone else. 

"Soo…" April started a bit stiffly, she'd already figured Raph wasn't the keenest turtle on talking. 

The silence kept stretching on, going into the zone where April felt awkward to attempt picking up where she had tried to start a sentence. 

"…. …. …" 

"…" 

"Yea." Raph responded after a while. 

She wished Mikey would come back, or Leo. They were easier to talk to... definitely easier. 

Raph suddenly cleared his throat, as if he'd just decided there was something to say. "Just so we are clear, when we're out there…. Uh.. doing whatever and getting your dad back… there is only 3 turtles IF they know about us, otherwise we don't exist at all. There is no rat, and you do not know where we live. Got it?" he grumbled out after a while, his green eyes staring into hers, scrutinising her. Like he was trying to judge if she was trustworthy or not. 

She looked at him for a moment. "Got it. I know nothing." Not like anyone would believe her anyway if she told anyone. Also it wasn't like she would give them away to the enemy considering they were actually helping her. 

"So.. what does Donnie do?" She wasn't sure if it was rude to ask but she was curious none the less. 

"He's not a ninja." Raph replied, short and to the point, she was getting the vibes that he was pretty defensive when it came to his family. "If that's what you were wondering." 

"yea, no I can see that." Then she backtracked. "I mean, no offense or anything." 

"Don't tell me that, tell him. Besides, he's great at stuff we suck at, so he doesn't need to be a ninja too." I'll make up for that, Raph silently thought to himself. A small part of him still felt somewhat responsible, and he'd promised he'd be a great ninja, so Donnie didn't need to. He could be a great inventor and medic instead.


	6. Time flies when you're busy

April entered Donnie's lab, he had probably forgotten the time again. Given his different tasks and requirements he wasn't exactly on the same schedule as his brothers at all times.

"Donnie..?" She looked around but couldn't find anyone, but he had to be around here somewhere…

She paused when she saw a wheelchair, or, half a wheelchair..? It seemed to be missing handles, under construction perhaps, upon inspection though it was quite different from his usual one. "Huh.."

The lab was littered in projects, she picked up a curious thing on a nearby desk, it looked like a tiny little backpack.

"What in the..?" Beside it she saw a little drawing with.. was that a cockroach wearing it? She smirked a little at the silly drawing, maybe he had too much time on his hands sometimes… She glanced around, a little sneak peak wouldn't hurt. She skimmed through some of them, she noted quite a few were possible video feedback projects, among them a whole robot.

A clattering noise made her jump, nearly dropping the papers. Turning she spotted Don's usual wheelchair, only, he wasn't in it. Walking around the table she paused and looked around, if she hadn't looked down she would probably have tripped over him.

"Oh my gosh..!" He was lying on the floor, his upper body was underneath the second table with his legs sprawled randomly over the floor. She wasn't sure how long he'd been there but she couldn't just leave him there. So she grabbed him by the shell and pulled.

"…." Donnie blinked and looked up at her in surprise, she must have looked just as surprised as him, because she hadn't expected him to be so easy to pull out, or wear headphones.

"Oh uh.. you're on a skateboard..?"

"What? Sorry hold on." He pulled his headphones off and propped himself up on his elbows, she could faintly hear music coming from them.

"There."

"Donnie what are you doing down here? I thought you'd fallen over. But I.. guess not since you are uh.. on a skateboard." She said awkwardly.

"Oh, sorry about that. I didn't notice you coming in... I was working on this baby~" He patted the big metal piece sitting on the floor. "It was too heavy to get up on the desk, so this way was easier. The skateboard helps me move around better. By the way." He explained while easing himself of the skateboard.

He gave her an awkward smile and adjusted himself slightly. "I replaced the wheels on it, so I can move in any direction. Neat huh?"

"Heh, yea. Very. Sorry if I surprised you. We were supposed to go over some info I found about the Krang." She clarified before he could ask why she was there.

"Is it already that time? I was sure Raph was here only an hour ago..." Looking at the clock proved otherwise though, Raph was here four hours ago. "Oh." He moved to grab his wheelchair.

"Oh do you..?" She moved forward in an attempt to lift him up.

"Ah no, it's fine. I can do it."

She stopped and quickly let go, feeling a bit awkward. Like she'd assumed he couldn't. "Sorry."

"Don't sweat it…" He said in a strained voice as he started pulling. Slowly he dragged himself up into the wheelchair, it was a slow process but eventually he was sitting back in the chair. April then realised why he had handles in what seemed like odd places.

"Oh, clever." 

He gave her a goofy grin. "Alright, let's see which potential Krang base we should sick my brothers on next." He said as a half joke while undoing the breaks. As if they were his personal attack dogs. Not that they were, but April did find the joke slightly funny. During difficult times, you need some humour here and there.

She knew what he really wanted was to be out there with them, but she couldn't imagen how that would work. Just watching him get into the chair and imagining that in the middle of combat gave her an unpleasant feeling in her gut. That'd be too easy a target. Given his project ideas she assumed he had a similar feeling.

Shaking off the thought she pulled forth her laptop.

"Okay, so I did get some sightings noted by a number of people on the forums, these ones are all fake. But I think this one is legit..." She pointed and showed a few pictures they'd posted on the website. Along with a short video, that was definitely a Krang walking away.

"Alright. If we can pinpoint the street we could probably do an estimated guess on where to look based on what buildings are nearby." Don pulled out a map and started looking over it. They discussed their current research as Leo joined in. They decided on 3 new spots that should be checked out. One of them could be a base. Hopefully, it would be the one that held April's dad.


	7. Space thoughts

Donnie is pretty sure space did not have disabled people in mind.

He is also pretty sure he's going to have a major concussion if he doesn't figure out how to turn this damn thing around before gravity sets back in again.

The professor had been kind enough to provide him with a wheelchair from his planet. Casey and Mikey's been nagging about trying it out ever since. Well, he's pretty sure it's a hoverchair, rather than a wheelchair, but he must admit that it is pretty cool.

The controls are thought based, a little thing attached to his neck to control it. That way you can use it no matter what limbs seems to be failing you. Honeycutt shot down Casey and Mikey's dreams pretty quickly though, saying it would be unsanitary to share controls. They'd have to get their own if they wanted to drive it, which sounded expensive. Meaning if they wanted a ride Donnie would be the driver regardless if he was in it or not.

He is kinda tempted to give Casey a hell ride, but given his adrenaline addiction, he'd probably just enjoy it. Infuriatingly enough.

Right, back to the turning issue.


	8. Ninja training

Donnie sat in his duct taped wheelchair they'd built him a few months ago.

In his hands before him rested his Bo staff, he stared at it for a long moment, they'd been so happy when Splinter had introduced them to their new weapons, training dummies, not real sharp ones. But it was a very exciting day none the less, the next step in their training.

He gripped the Bo, he'd trained with it for less than a year, but it felt like a companion. Slowly he started spinning it.

 _Thunk!_

He grimaced and tried again.

 _Thunk!_

"Come on..." He tried to shift and block a few imaginary attacks.

 _Thunk!_

"I can't..!" He nearly yelled and threw the staff in irritation, it kept getting stuck and hitting the wheelchair.

"It's impossible... I can't do it." He mumbled when Splinter went to pick it up.

"Hmm.. Perhaps we should try something else?" Splinter suggested.

Don sighed. "Yea.. I.. I guess.." He looked sadly at the Bo as Splinter placed it along the wall, thinking of what could have been.

Splinter disappeared from view as he went to fetch something perhaps more suitable. He'd already known the outcome, but figured it was best for his son to come to terms with it and realise he had to let it go on his own. He'd already spent the last two weeks finding some things that he might be able to use instead. He was sure his son could find something among the ones he'd picked.

"How about something shorter?" He suggested. Donnie looked at the tonfas he was handed. Upon inspecting it, it was simply shorter sticks, about the length of his hand to elbow, heavier too with firm handles. He tried gripping it tightly and trying a few hits.

He only hit the wheelchair a few times, rather than every time, and it was easier to block. At least he could avoid the chair if he was careful and minded the sides more. He frowned slightly.

"I don't know Sensei, my range isn't very good with these…" He supposed in a sense it was a bit like taking his Bo in half, but it wasn't the same, he missed the range.

"Perhaps not, but I think we should focus more on defensive combat rather than offensive." He said thoughtfully, while he understood his son wanted to fight just like before, realistically speaking he wasn't sure how they would be able to achieve that. Just being able to defend himself would be an achievement.

Don looked down at the tonfa, thinking. While his style was shaping up to be rather defensive to begin with, he had been able to go on offense with ease with his bo... and legs. Tonfas of course wasn't really defence, but in his situation, they might as well be.

"…" He looked around for a bit. Trying to come up with some other weapon that could work. Swords? Maybe… but he wasn't as able to twist around. He wasn't sure he could put enough force into the blows from his position to cut, leaving it rather pointless.

"My son, how about this, first we focus on what is doable right now, like learning to block with these, then we can think of options once you've progressed, does that sound good?"

"I suppose… Alright." He nodded. One step… or in his case, one wheel at a time. He supposed. 

_A few years later…_

Donnie lingered a bit after their training session.

They'd been sparring again, well, if you wanted to call it that. His and Mikey's 'sparring' had been about Mikey trying to hit him while he blocked. Three hits in a certain amount of time and Mikey won, otherwise he won.

While he used his weapons mostly like as if they were armguards, he could also spin them and hit, forcing his attacker to step back if they got close. That was the idea anyway.

Nervously he cleared his throat, he'd been thinking about this for days, and he wanted to do something different. Another step. If he kept up with just blocking he might as well just get some armour for his arms and be done with it.

"Sensei? Could.. could I have more weapons than one?"

"I don't see why not? As long as this does not become a hindrance, any weapon is viable. Did you have something in mind?"

"I might have… It's just an idea... I want to have something less defensive too. Could I?"

"Hm.. Very well. Just make sure it is thoroughly tested before you put it to practice. You will not be allowed to use it for sparring until I approve."

Splinter smiled as Don excitedly left the dojo after their talk.

He had a lot of ideas to test.

 _Present day…_

April sat down by the far end of the dojo, she'd arrived a bit earlier and ended up watching the boys train. This was really the first time she'd see them do that, she was also starting to wonder if perhaps she should ask Splinter for some self-defence training… it would be nice.

The four brothers took their places in the dojo and kneeled, except Donnie, for obvious reasons. He kept his head down like his brothers and greeted Splinter as the lesson began. April noted that he wasn't in his usual wheelchair, it was the one from the lab. This one was starkly different, more barren, really.

She realised it was probably to lessen the amount it would be in the way.

The Wheelchair was just like the normal one up to a point, but it had discs on the sides, preventing anyone to stick anything into the wheels. The back was kept to a minimum, not going wider or higher than his shell, and there were no handles or armrests on it whatsoever except the ridges in which he could grab the wheels to steer and move it around. Across his midsection was a belt strap, keeping him tied to the chair's back, as well as two across his tights. Making sure he wouldn't fall off. He also had a set of straps around each ankle to keep the legs firmly in place.

Between his strapped down legs and just within reach was a bag of some kind. Unlike his brother's weapons he kept the Tonfas firmly attached to his arms with what seemed to be some kind of bracelets higher up along the arms, so he could let go without entirely dropping his weapon. Making it easier to grab his wheels, April assumed. Though it meant he could only use them to block.

April watched as the guys started to warm up and stretch under Splinters instructions, Don spent some of the time moving around and checking he could turn properly, to make sure nothing was out of place. She noticed he stopped for a moment and glanced her way, she smiled and gave a little wave, hoping she wasn't bothering them too much by watching.

Today's session was sparring, and Mikey was up against Raph first.

"Oh man.." Mikey whined a little as Raph grinned wide, cracking his neck. He was pretty sure Raph was still mad from the prank he pulled this morning.

"Alright let's do this~"

"Hajime!"

Raph charged forward, straight to the point. The sort of move April would expect from him. Mikey yelped, only to smirk and feint in the last minute, suddenly taking a big jump. He flipped over his brother and took a swing at his exposed side.

"!" Raph twisted mid charge and swung his sai out to block, he twisted his wrist as soon as the weapon made contact to hook it in place.

Mikey however didn't fall for the trick and quickly let go, distracting him by aiming a well-placed kick to Raph's knee. As Raph lost his footing he quickly reclaimed his nunchaku and retreated.

"Oh yea~ I'm on fire! You can't get a hit on this turtle~" Mikey taunted to annoy him as Raph regained his balance. This time Mikey charged.

He made to strike to the left, but feinted and jumped, unfortunately Raph kept up and blocked, grabbing his arm. A smirk crossed his face as he started spinning, dragging Mikey with him for the ride.

"Woah!" As he let go Mikey flew across the room, landing on the other side, looking dizzy. Soon enough Raph jumped him and pushed him into the ground.

"Given up yet?"

"… Yea I'm beat.. the ground is spinning…"

"And I didn't even hit you."

As they finished up they went to sit to the side while their brothers took their places on the dojo mats.

Leonardo took a fighting stance, facing Donnie. April wasn't sure what she was expecting, or how Leo could have the gall to do this. She was pretty sure she'd not be able to hit a guy in a wheelchair. Training or not.

Don stretched his arm down and unhooked something underneath the chair, and revealed a hidden metal object while his other arm grabbed at whatever was in the bag.

"Hajime!"

Don wasted no time throwing the object, what threw April off were the fact he hadn't aimed it straight at Leo, but rather in an angle to the side.

Leo darted forwards, but stepped to the side when a few throwing stars, April concluded, came his way, the blade Donnie had thrown curved in the air and changed direction. As Leo ducked and Don caught the object when it came back to him she realised it was a boomerang of some sort.

As Don relentlessly kept throwing and forcing Leo to move and block, Leo was also slowly advancing. Seeing an opening he attacked. Don grabbed a wheel with one hand and jerked it while he threw the other arm up to block the attack. Leo hit the tonfas head on and was then forced to step back as the boomerang was coming back again.

Though as Don was forced to move and block, the boomerang flew past and hit the wall, clattering to the floor, now he only had the tonfa's at his disposal. Leo feinted and made to attack his other side, Don blocked and clicked the handle on the tonfa with his free hand, unhinging it from its fixed position, making it an offensive weapon. He aimed for Leo's midsection to try make him back off.

Leo let him, and he couldn't help but feel a sting of annoyance at that, he knew Leo could do much better, he was as usual, holding back. Glancing around quickly he realised the game was over unless he hit him with the few stars he had left. There was no way he was getting that boomerang back in time. No point going defensive anymore.

Making sure to take into account where everyone else were at he threw some stars to bounce of the walls, while Leo blocked he wheeled forward and unhinged both Tonfas to attack. He was by no means fast, but he hoped the stars would distract him so he could get close enough to reach.

Leo was mildly surprised when Don was moving towards him, but took the moment to attack. Don blocked a few quick hits, until Leo rolled down behind him. He quickly turned his Tonfa's up and twisted them behind him to block and froze when he ended up with one of Leo's blades coming in from the front instead against his throat. Then one of the bouncing stars hit Leo in the shell.

"Ah."

Don couldn't help but smirk a little.

"Yame!" Splinter didn't seem all too happy though. "In real combat, you would have been dead, you cannot forgo your safety just to try hitting your enemy."

Don cringed slightly, he knew sensei wouldn't have approved when he had moved towards Leo. "I know sensei… Sorry…" He half mumbled, silently thinking to himself that it was just training. Not like he would be allowed to go in any real combat anytime soon.

"Geez these things hurt even when they're not sharp." Leo massaged the edge of his shell and complained slightly before going to help Donnie pick up his weapons.

"Thanks Leo, sorry about the bump." He accepted his weapons back before joining Raph in a two versus two, Mikey jumped up and went over to Leo's side.

"Hajime!"

Don gave Leo a slight glare, as the battle started his speed had 'miraculously' improved as he engaged Raph. He was pretty sure that right there were the reason Leo was the only turtle he'd ever won against. Even if it had been only two or three times. At least he could count on Mikey and Raph to be more honest.

April walked up to don as they were dismissed.

"That was amazing." She commented and smiled. Don blushed slightly and scratched his neck.

"Thanks… Though I don't really do well on my own..." The fight where Raph helped keep his brothers out of range went better than his match against Leo. He really wasn't cut out to face ranged or close combat, unless he had someone to distract and play the tank, so to speak. As long as the enemy wasn't focused on him it was fine, and if they did he could block to a certain extent, but he had a lot more weak spots than his brothers and couldn't get out of it without help as he moved slowly. The fact that he couldn't really block and move at the same time effectively was also a big problem.

He sighed as they left the dojo, he just wasn't cut out for combat.

"Could I see that?"

"Hm? See what?"

"Your weapons?"

"Oh! Sure? It's just some training shurikens and throwing stars, they weight the same as the sharp ones though. And this is my boomerang, this one is also blunt, so I don't do any actual harm during training should it hit. The sharp one is really sharp though." He smiled as April inspected them.

"So you're the master at throwing stuff?" April said half as a joke. Don snorted.

"Well, I've certainly done better than that session… but it's just to try keep the enemy at a distance, really. I'm not a ninja or a fighter, and Leo holds back like no tomorrow, I caught on way earlier than he thinks." At least Raph was always honest, and while Mikey didn't like to talk about the bad stuff, he didn't tip toe around him like Leo could do sometimes.

"I think sensei just wants me to be able to hold out long enough for my brothers or him to be able to help me, really. Uh, should we be attacked down here that is, I don't think he's letting me go out anytime soon…"

Don sighed in defeat.

"You mean you've never been to the surface? Ever?"

"Nope, never. Not even to just take a peak. Sometimes I think sensei is more paranoid than I am."

April pondered on those words. "Maybe we can convince him otherwise? I can help? We could… go to my place? I live there alone right now anyway. Keep it all hidden… and your brothers can help! No fighting, no mission. Just a stealthy visit to the surface. We can put you in a disguise even. With so much measures he gotta say yes!"

"Really? You'd do that for me?" Don felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest and smiled at her.

"Of course, we're friends." April couldn't help but smile in return when he gave her a warm smile.

"You think we could ask your sensei if I could get some training too? Just some, uh self-defence, considering all the bad stuff going on."

"Sure, we can both ask him tomorrow!"


	9. Mikey's new friend

Leo, Raph and Mikey had been out on another run, in the process testing out one of Donnie's new inventions, a communication device.

"Test, you still with us?"

"Yea I can hear you just fine. According to the GPS you should still be within range. Are you by the 45th street?"

"Let me check uh.. Yea."

"Good. That seems to be accurate."

"Okay guys let's- Uh Mikey?" Leo looked around, not seeing him anywhere. Then he spotted him over the roof's edge on the fire escape.

"Mikey what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna return this cat! I think it came from there!" He pointed at an open window.

"Wait what? Mikey! You're gonna freak them out, don't-"

"What's going on?" He heard Donnie ask over the phone, which Mikey had named the T-phone.

"Mikey. Just … uh hold on."

They watched as Mikey attempted to go down, poking his head in the open window asking if it was their cat. Screams followed and he quickly retreated out of there.

"Mikey what were you thinking?!"

"Sorry I just- I hoped I could make a friend..." He sighed.

"Mikey, we're mutants, and-" 

Then they paused. Suddenly they were surrounded by ninjas.

"Guys? What's happening? Can someone fill me in..?"

"Sorry Don! We are uh.. getting attacked, get back to you later!" Leo ended the call and took a fighting stance.

"Who are these guys..?"

"No idea.."

Then the ninjas attacked.

The fight felt different, it was a fight with ninjas, with people. Leo couldn't help but feel good about that fact, he was tired of fighting robots and aliens all the time. Though that big guy in the armour wasn't holding his punches.

He grunted as he was hit in the plastron and flew backwards, almost hitting Raph. They were about to counterattack when police sirens could be heard. Both parties stared at one another for a short moment, before retreating.

Leo apologised a few times once they came home, they'd forgotten to call back, leaving Don with only a 'we're being attacked bye.' Before going silent. Don sighed, maybe he should work on some video feedback too... Or something handsfree.

They had no idea who the unknown ninjas were, but the general consensus was that they needed to be more careful, and investigate what this new threat could be. Don listened as Leo told Splinter about the fight. He found it a bit ironic that Leo complained about the fight not being fair. Since Don's own sparring fights with his brothers were often anything but from the very start despite being allowed projectile type weapons in sparring. At least Splinter gave him a good lesson, he smirked a little.

"Welcome to my world..." He mumbled vaguely, not really intending for it to be heard as he grabbed his coffee to place in his mug holder and rolled out of the kitchen and towards his lab. He had a few cockroaches in training and the first one, his favourite really, was probably ready for a test run soon.

He was also missing quite a few parts, so a run to the junkyard would be good, perhaps one of his brothers would be up for it later.

April looked on as Mikey fanboyed over a magazine.

"But Mikey, I'm your friend." April pointed out.

"Yea, but we saved you, so you have to like us! It doesn't count."

She raised an eyebrow at that.

"Mikey that is extremely rude." Don pointed out. "Of course she counts."

"Hm yea, but like. I wanna make a human friend who just… you know…"

"Hmm.. I might have an idea, can I borrow that?" She gestures for Donnie's laptop and he hands it over.

"You could make online friends, that way they won't know what you look like! And you can chat with them."

That had been a few days ago.

"I'm going off to see my new friend! Don't wait up!" Mikey waved and rushed out of the lair.

"… Isn't anyone else finding this very strange..?" Don commented as Mikey rushed off. At first they had been worried when he had rushed off to meet this 'Bradford' guy, who was somewhat famous. But then it was just down right shocking, they were actually friends? Apparently, he had attacked Mikey at first, but then they became best buds, just like that?

Don had sat through a lot of stories from Mikey about this 'Bradford' guy, and he just couldn't help feeling something was odd. Except the never-ending talk about him, which was starting to get slightly annoying if he were honest. Or maybe Mikey really had just met a human who was really nice and didn't care about the fact that he was a giant talking turtle? Unlikely... but not completely impossible he supposed.

Raph and Leo had certainly had enough, since he kept talking about the guy even on their patrols. One time Raph had called Don just to escape the constant talk, pretending he needed to talk about something important, which had been confusing to say the least.

As it turned out, something wasn't right.

Mikey had come back one evening showing them this amazing new move that Bradford had taught him, a secret kata. Only as Raph and Leo had been practicing it while Don watched, Splinter had entered. Upon seeing it he had told them it was a move from his old enemy. Meaning this guy was bad news.

"We got to go make sure he is okay. I mean, you got to go make sure he is okay." Don declared. Raph and Leo quickly prepared and went off as soon as they were ready.

Mikey was super excited as he walked into the room, it was unusually dark in here though…

"Braddy~?" He questioned as he looked around. "Is this some kinda surprise thing?" He'd really enjoyed having a human friend, one he had gotten all on his own, it had been absolutely fantastic. He had never had a surprise before though. Looking curiously around he wondered what it could be, or perhaps he hadn't meant right now..? He was pretty sure he meant-

"?" Mikey stopped and looked up, only to find the guy that had attacked them in that alley, the guy with the ninjas. And some other skinny guy he had never seen before.

"…. Oh uh… I was.. just leaving.." He tried to retreat as he attacked.

"Woah dude!" He ducked. "What did you do to my friend..?!" He suddenly realised, bradford wasn't there, maybe he was hurt? Or worse?

"Hahah, haven't you figured it out yet?"

"Figured out what?" He was thrown off by the question as he blocked the other skinny guy.

Dodging away and landing a few hits he made to move towards the exit, only to end up with a firm hit to his plastron, taking the air out of his lungs.

"!" he fell to the floor as they jumped and tied him up.

"We've met plenty of times…" They guy took the mask off. Mikey gasped as he saw the guy was actually Bradford.

"… You tricked me! I thought we were friends…" Mikey felt a twinge of fear and betrayal.

Donnie wheeled back and forth across the floor of his lab, nervous about what was going on. Just sending them off without really being able to see what was going on or do anything about it was scary. To say the least.

What he needed was better communication, not just producing stuff and waiting for results afterwards with an occasional call update. Sure, he could help with some things as they could actually talk over distance now, but it wasn't always easy. Patching them up if they came home injured he could also do. But he felt like he wanted to be more available… He just felt like his help wasn't cutting it. He needed something more. 

Leo suddenly called. He quickly answered.

"We found him, he is all tied up. Probably a trap."

"Okay... can you get in from above?" Don bit his lip.

"Window is locked."

"Use the tool I gave Raph, the co-" He stopped himself. "The thing with the pencil on." He'd rather not have to repeat his description. Don guided Raph on how to use the simple tool, soon enough the window was open and then they were in. All he could do after that was wait until it was done.

Raph and Leo silently lowered themselves down with the ropes, counting the ninjas in the room.

Taking them down went fairly quickly, taking a side each, then they cut Mikey free.

"Guys that was awesome!"

"Sshhh. Let's get out of here..." They moved quickly, getting back to the sewers. Of course, they didn't expect things to be that easy.

Don brought up a map. "Okay there should be a big clearing just a few tunnels back, lure them that way and you should be able to trap them."

They moved swiftly and silently, taking down enemies from behind as Mikey led them on. Once out with only two left, Bradford and the skinny guy, they attacked.

Raph and Mikey attacked one of them while Leo took care of the other. As they were fighting they were trying to lure them into the spot Don had described on his map. As he had no visuals it wasn't the easiest task, but it was fairly simple. Just get them where the water comes out and find the wheel to flush them.

Raph retreated from the fight once they were getting close and quickly started looking around, upon finding it he waited until Leo and Mikey got them in position.

"Now Raph!" Leo yelled, Raph quickly turned the wheel.

"Bye~" Mikey said tauntingly and waved as they disappeared from view, screaming as they were flushed away by the sudden torrent of water. 

"Guys you GOT to remember to say something when you're done. It is not fun to sit and wait and wonder if you'll suddenly pop in, or if something went wrong." Don scolded them once they were back. But he was also very glad that Mikey was okay, and that they got the bad guys.

"Just.. so you know Mikey. You deserve way better friends than that jerk." Raph commented when Mikey seemed slightly down. Well, who wouldn't be when it turns out your friend was only pretending to be your friend and was actually an enemy wanting to use you…

"Yea… I suppose. He wasn't really a good friend in the end. Yea, you're right." Mikey nodded to himself in determination.

Raph patted Mikey and smiled as he seemed to brighten up a lot.


	10. Missing scientists?

"Hey guys!" April came in cheerfully and greeted them, they seemed to be gathered in Don's lab looking at a map.

"Hey April." Leo said absentmindedly.

"So, I got this newspaper, there is apparently kidnappings of scientists, I figured it might be the Krang since they took my dad. And there is one really recent so I figured we could check out his place?" She waved the newspaper in the air.

"Hm, actually that could be a lead." Leo said after a few seconds, now paying attention.

"So we're gonna bust into some kidnapped guys office..? Fine by me." Raph got up, it was more fun than watching that map back and forth all day. He could use some exercise.

"You comin' Mikey?" Leo and Raph started to move along with April.

Mikey was about to answer but then glanced towards Don, he looked slightly sad and longingly towards the rest of the group, where he sat left alone by the table. He knew Don wanted to go with them, even if he couldn't, and while Mikey couldn't really do anything about that…

"Uh, you know what guys…? I'm not sure I'm feeling so well, I think it's something I ate." He burped and whined a little for effect. "I might actually need today off if that's cool?"

Raph looked at him in surprise, he was pretty sure they all ate the same thing... A quick glance at Don however told him what Mikey was up to.

"Oh. …I don't want you puking all over me! So stay home then! Not like we're gonna do anything but go into some old boring office anyway."

"Eh? Didn't we eat the s-"

Before Leo could finish the sentence he was pushed along by Raph. "All fine! We can handle this, right Leo?" He gave his brother a glare before he seemed to catch on.

"Oh yea, right, you rest! We'll uh.. yea."

Mikey watched as they disappeared. As he turned Don looked at him in surprise.

"Hey bro! You ready do to something fun?" He said in a cheerful tone.

"Uh, didn't you just say-"

"Yea, guess it was a really quick come and go one~" He said and winked before grabbing Don's chair and wheeling him out of the lab. Being cooped up in here all evening would not do.

"No offense April, but we're ninjas, we got this." Leo said with a smile and patted April's shoulder. "You just wait here, just in case there is anything Krangy in there."

April huffed while she waited around the corner of the office. In the meantime, Leo and Raph busted into the office and started looking.

"Okay this place is slightly freakier than I thought..." Raph commented as he shone the flashlight towards the busted cage in there. "Why would he even have that in here?" He said in a sceptic tone.

Leo was looking through the drawers, trying to see if he could find anything, then he stumbled upon something glowing, lifting the lid there was..

"Mutagen.." He stared in surprise at it before picking it up. "Raph check this out, I think this definitely means Krang is involved.."

"Woah that's dangerous stuff, what's that doing here?" He looked up from the bookshelf.

"No idea.. but we're taking it with us, maybe Donnie can analyse it."

That's when the lights went on. They both turned in alarm, there was a human in a lab coat there. He started screaming.

"Monsters..!"

Raph gritted his teeth and jumped the human. "Calm down we're just-" He paused, and realised he'd knocked him out by accident.

"Uhm. We mean no harm? Oops.."

Leo gave him a glare. "Great. At least no one will believe he saw giant turtles because you probably hit his head so hard he'll have a big bruise." He said in an accusing tone.

"What? I just reacted. He could have set off the entire building or something." Raph shrugged.

"Let's go." Leo nodded, grabbed the canister before they snuck out the window to meet up with April. 

"Hmm.. how about we do some cooking?" Before Don could even answer Mikey got all excited about it and steered them in that direction. Donnie had a feeling Mikey got an idea in his head and it wasn't really worth objecting at this point.

"Yea sure, why not." Giving up to Mikey's whims he simply went along for the ride.

Once in the kitchen Mikey started to look through what they had while Don relished in having control back over his destinations. He looked at Mikey trying to figure something out, maybe this could be fun, if he perhaps gave him a nudge in the right direction.

"How about… you teach me to cook something? I'm not that good at it." While some people seemed to think chemistry and cooking had a lot in common, Don was good at chemistry and Mikey at cooking, but not the other way around. He supposed one was very controlled and mathematical, while the other was more... feeling and hunches.

"Oh that's a great idea!" Mikey seemed to get all excited as he thought about something you could teach, you didn't really need legs for cooking, which was a good thing. Though they did have a few benches that weren't really in Don's favour, but he could use the table instead.

"How about… pie?"

"Pie? Hmm yea sure why not?" Don nodded, sounded easy enough, also not all that crazy, which was what he hoped for. "What flavour? Apple?"

"Nah… This is an opportunity for experimentation and adventure! … Let's do a pizza flavoured pie!"

Don internally facepalmed. Well, not exactly normal but… close enough.

"Alright I'll show you how to make the dough first! Then we can prepare ingredients!"

"Okay, but I have a say in what goes in, I do want to make something everyone can actually eat."

"Deal!"

As they came home April wasn't too happy, she had basically been benched, even though she had been the one to find the clue in the first place.

They all looked around to find the lair seemingly empty but for sensei who walked past them towards the toilets, greeting them on the way.

"Where are they…?" Leo said as he peeked into the lab where he had expected to find them, if they weren't in front of the TV.

"Uh.. in here." Raph said. Leo turned to find Raph staring into the kitchen.

Upon entering, the place was… a tad messy, some dough and ingredients on the floor, some squashed by Don's wheels as he was unable to avoid it all while moving around, and Mikey had a lot of sauce splattered over him, while Don was a lot cleaner and in the progress of wiping his hands.

"Oh hey guys!" Mikey said happily as he noted his brothers and April were back.

"What have you guys been doing..?"

"Oh well you see, I taught Don how to make pie, but then we dropped some stuff… and uh, we had a bit of an accident with the sauce and the mixer. But the Pie is almost done!"

It was pretty clear who had and who hadn't cleaned at all, all the messy spots in the kitchen were places Don couldn't reach. There was a stark difference between the lower benches and table versus the floor and cabinets.

"Right… You better clean this up before sensei notice."

"Will do!" Mikey saluted.

April sat in the kitchen chair eating heated up pizza pie from the other day while reading about a scientist being assaulted in his office. The article mentioned he got away with a mild concussion and was currently recovering in a hospital due to his delirious hallucinations about turtles. She gave Leo and Raph a slight glare while they looked uncomfortable.

Somewhere in the city a mutant monkey was causing trouble for the unlucky angry inhabitants who happened to come across him…

Too bad they never did find that missing scientist.


	11. Drabble: A Bouncy Lesson

**A bouncy lesson**

Mikey smiled wide as April entered the dojo.

"What's up Ape? You here to join us?"

"You bet!" She gave him a high five when he held his hand up towards her.

Today was the first day April would join the brothers in training, she had had some private lessons with Splinter in the basics, but he had decided she could join in today. Apparently, it was an activity they needed to practice together. For teamwork.

They all sat down and waited. Though Don had this weird expression on his face, like he knew something they didn't.

"My sons, and April." He nodded towards her. "Today you will be practicing dodging."

".. What?" Leo seemed slightly surprised. He gave both Donnie and April a glance and looked back to Splinter. "Dodging, sensei?"

"Yes. Is something the matter?"

"Well…" Leo hesitated. "Not… not really?"

"You seem unsure."

"Well it's just... not what I expected. I mean, Donnie and April are.. uhm." He quickly looked down, April could practically see him squirm under his father's gaze. He might as well, that comment was slightly rude, she could dodge. And she was pretty sure Splinter was well aware of Donnie's limits.

"April will be just fine. And I did not say all of you. For today's lesson, I have enlisted Donatello to help me out. He will be in charge of projectiles while I will be the judge. 25 strikes and you will be out. 40 for April as she is still a beginner. I advise cooperation." Mikey carefully observed his sensei's face, and he could tell there was a hint of… something in there. Playfulness?

"25? That's a lot." Raph commented.

"Oh trust me you will need it." Don said with a slight smile.

Mikey's face lit up, this seemed a lot more like a game than a training session, and he wouldn't say no to that.

"Alright, bring it! Bet one pizza I can beat you all!" He cheered.

"Michelangelo this is a teamwork lesson." Splinter corrected. "As this is a dodging exercise you will not be needing your weapons." Splinter gestured for them to put them to the side. In the meantime, Don unhooked one of two big bags and put in his lap. Mikey noted then that he was in his regular wheelchair, rather than the training one. Don put his hands in the bag and gave them a big smile. Mikey was sure they were in for it now.

They all spread out slightly and got ready, April supposed this wouldn't be too hard, she just had to pay attention to Donnie and where he was throwing the objects.

However, as Donnie grabbed at the bags contents, she had a feeling maybe things wouldn't be easy. She was right.

At Splinter's signal Donnie began to throw, to their dismay, of everything it could be, he threw bouncy balls. They flew through the air, and as they dodged, the balls went bouncing against the walls, floor and ceiling, making it increasingly hard to predict in which direction they would be coming from.

He started off with just a few, but they kept increasing. April felt one hit her shoulder and leg while she tried to avoid another one thrown her way. Some were thrown directly at them, others he threw at the surroundings, making them more unpredictable.

"For the..!" Raph ducked as Don threw one right at his face. "Take it easy with the aiming!" That, however, had proved to be just a distraction, because one hit the ceiling above him, bouncing down in an angle and hit his leg.

"Crud!"

Leo threw himself to the side, hitting Raph as he tried to avoid the balls going literally everywhere, he was pretty sure this was not something you could actually win against.

"Get out of my space Leo!"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Guys..! I think we're meant to not clash into each other."

"Work together!" Splinter admonished them.

Mikey seemed to thrive, he was having a lot of fun, and executed some dance moves while he kept dodging. That earned him a few extra balls his way from Donnie.

"Hey..!"

"Don't worry, I'll get you all!" Don seemed to enjoy this a lot too.

April gasped, she felt like she was doing the workout of her life, suddenly she was pulled to the side, and realised it was Mikey, and he just saved her from a hit. He smiled at her.

"Team up against the throwing menace?"

She smiled and nodded, working together was mostly beneficial for April, but she could also warn Mikey when a bouncy ball came up in his blind spot. She also had the advantage of being smaller, while Mikey had a big shell that was harder to keep away from the bouncy balls.

Raph and Leo did not have the same cooperation, Leo tripped over Raph, causing him to stumble as well, as they fell Raph got hit a few times since he ended up on top.

"Raphael is out!" Came Splinters voice.

Raph glared daggers at Leo as he moved to stand by Don's side.

"Wanna help?" He offered.

"You bet." Raph took the other bag. From that point it only took a few seconds for Leo to strike out.

"Raph! That wasn't fair!" Leo exclaimed, as Raph had ruthlessly peppered only Leo with the bouncy balls.

"It's called revenge." He laughed, but quieted down when sensei sent a look his way.

April could tell her movements were getting sluggish, she had more hits than the others, but that wasn't much of a help right now. She maneuvered to the side, only to feel something hit her back.

"April is out!"

Only a few seconds later Mikey was out as well.

"Oh yea! I won!" Mikey made a victory dance.

"It is not about winning, it is about working together to last for as long as possible. Clearly something Michelangelo and April succeeded far better in than Leonardo and Raphael." Splinter commented.

Leo and Raph looked down on the suddenly very interesting dojo mats. Raph grumbled a bit about Leo messing it up, and Leo shot him a subtle glare.

"Aw yeah!" April and Mikey gave each other a high five. "That means we get the pizza then!" Mikey cheered and then added. "Don too of course, without you we wouldn't have won the pizza~!"

"I wasn't playing favourites if that's what you think."

"Nah, we all know I'm all your favourite baby brother~" Mikey said teasingly to his three big brothers. "But also because there wouldn't be anything to win otherwise!"

"We should play this more often! Can we sensei? Pleeeease?" Mikey looked hopefully at him while the rat smiled. Raph and Leo groaned, while Don simply smiled, it had been quite fun.

April chuckled as they bantered back and forth, in the mean time she decided to get started on ordering that pizza.


	12. Drabble: Bathtub Trouble

**Bathtub Trouble  
**

At first it had been absolutely wonderful, it was warm, cosy and he'd almost fallen asleep. Now though he wasn't happy at all as he sat in the tub with his extra support making sure he would stay in place without having to hold himself up all the time.

Mikey had helped him get into the bathtub for a relaxing bath, that had been 4 hours ago, now he was stuck here and the water was getting cold.

"MIKEY!"

* * *

Mikey sprang from the ledge and flipped through the air, landing skilfully on the next rooftop right by Leo's side.

"Guys, I just feel like I've forgotten something..." He pondered. "I think it was important."

"Yea, dodging!" Raph said as he came through the air and tackled them both down.

"Woah!" Mikey and Leo fell in surprise.

"What the heck was that Raph?"

That had been two hours ago.

Suddenly Mikey startled in the middle of the battle as he realised what he had forgotten.

"I FORGOT DONNIE IN THE BATHTUB!"

"You did what?!"

"Mikey!"

* * *

Donnie felt grateful when Splinter had found him after he'd heard him yelling.

"Thanks.." he sighed as he was placed in the sofa with a towel, blankets and a hot cup of tea to warm him up.

"Heheh.. oops?" Mikey smiled apologetically as Splinter and Donnie gave him disapproving looks upon arrival home. "Good thing sensei was home huh?"

* * *

 **NOTE:** _I just discovered these lines so you can sort of cut it into sections! I'm still learning how the fanfiction site actually works and it's all a bit confusing. I don't like how you can't add more space in. ^^' But doing my best! Adding some short drabbles in here and there as you can see._


	13. Drabble: Awkward Talks

**Awkward talks**

Don groaned as he was stretched out on the couch, lying flat on his plastron.

"My tail feels smashed, Turtles aren't meant to sit all day…" He grumbled.

"You have tails?" April asked in surprise.

Don jolted, having almost forgotten she was there. He blushed as he both forgot her presence and mentioned stuff she didn't need to know about, like his disability problems. This was humiliating.

"Uh… yea? Turtles tend to have tails?" He tried to play it off as nothing, hoping she wouldn't remember he had just complained about being sore in the butt because his tail was sat on all day. He did not want to broach the topic on what he could and couldn't feel and where the line went.

"Yes but, I thought you guys didn't, since I've never seen them." She paused. "Not, not that I've specifically looked for it or anything!" She quickly added.

"….." Well this conversation was getting awkward.

"Yea. No, we just... have pretty short ones, because we're hybrids I guess." He finally concluded. April nodded. And they both silently agreed to drop the topic before it got anymore awkward. Don started thinking about what else to talk about, maybe April's homework? He wanted to impress her, not make himself seem awkward and weird. His knowledge and aptitude for intellectual topics was pretty much all he had at this point.

"So I was thinking…" He started, not noticing how his shifting had affected his legs.

April watched as one of Don's legs slowly slid off the couch, hanging down.

"Oh uh, your leg.." She pointed.

"Hm?" Don glanced behind him and realised one of his legs were going wayward, probably from when he moved earlier. "Oh uh.. if… if you don't mind..?" He asked carefully, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly.

 _Brilliant._

"Oh, not at all!" April carefully got up and taking the leg, placing it back up again. Then she tried to arrange it so it wouldn't happen again. Donnie buried his face in the pillow wanting to disappear, he was hardly impressing her and he'd practically just made everything worse and more awkward. His legs weren't on his side at all today either.

April sat silent for a few moments afterwards. "So… How about a movie? I can make popcorn?"

"Yes. _Please_." Don felt relieved when April practically saved him from his self-created misery.

* * *

 **Notes:** This and one more drabble to go, then you'll get a more lengthy chapter, promise ;)


	14. Drabble: I am THIS tall!

**I am THIS tall!**

Mikey smiled as Splinter marked the post in the kitchen entry. Stepping away he saw that he had grown a few more centimetres since last time.

"I bet I'm gonna outgrow Raph like this!" He exclaimed.

"Will not!"

"Will too!"

"Doesn't matter because I'm the tallest." Leo announced.

"I don't think so." Don commented. "I think I have longer legs than you, and sitting down I am taller than you." Don protested as he tried adjusting his wheelchair. Getting around was a bit difficult even with the chair, all the doorways had bumps and hurdles.

"That's not how it works." Leo protested. "Mikey is also taller than me when we sit down, but I'm taller than him when we stand up. You're the shortest."

"I am not the shortest!" Donnie protested.

"Enough!" Splinter interrupted. "You will not fight over this. Who is tallest and who is shortest does not matter."

Don looked up at Splinter. "But I wanna know how tall I am."

Splinter paused and looked at his son, then at the post, Raph, Leo and Mikey's had kept going, but he hadn't measured Don in a long while. Sitting down he was shorter than the last mark they had made. He sighed, it wasn't really about who was tallest, but it wasn't fair to not measure his son's growth just because he couldn't stand.

"Hm, let me think about it."

Later they had concluded that due to lack of measuring tapes, they would simply lay him down and with other objects get the height, then Splinter could put it on the post so he could at least get a gist of how tall he would be if he stood up.

When all was said and done, Donnie was beaming, while Leo looked less thrilled. Don's mark was higher than any of the others on the post.

"See? Not shortest." He said when he was sure Splinter was out of hearing range.

Raph gave Leo a dunk in the back. "No, that'd be Mikey."

A few years later though it seemed more and more like Raph was going to claim that spot. While Donnie's height kept staying well above the others. When they were younger Leo was definitely guilty of being glad Donnie sat down all the time so it didn't show. As they grew older though he stopped caring about it completely, realising height was after all, not really important.


	15. Wishes Versus Reality

**Notes** : _Here you go! A longer chapter~ Cheers._

* * *

April sat down, she was in slight shock, and mild anger, she had not expected it to escalate and turn ugly. She wasn't sure if she should have encouraged Don or not. It was partly her fault, or that's what she felt like it was, she had only wanted to help, honestly. But she might have poked something that shouldn't have been poked at, at least not yet.

The day had started out normally like any other day, she'd gotten off school and headed home for a quick change. Then went straight down to the sewer to visit the turtles. Okay, normal by her current standard of life, not normal for anyone else. Or for her before all the crazy things started happening.

Down in the lair she'd meet the guys, Raph had been training and Leo and Mikey were arguing about something happening on the TV, they had been watching some kind of cartoon. And Don was in his lab.

All was fine, the usual. Until she'd decided to make good on her and Don's earlier talk the other day that is.

She'd spent some time convincing him it was a good idea, he had a right to at least be able to go to the surface, he shouldn't have to put up with being holed down here at all times. As long as it wasn't for a mission or anything dangerous it should be perfectly fine. He should, figuratively speaking, stand up for himself and his rights to at least enjoy life a little.

That had not gone over so well with Splinter though, at first, they'd started by asking if April could get some training so she could defend herself. After Splinter had agreed to it saying it was a sensible idea, they decided to go on to Don's question, since Splinter seemed to be in a good mood.

They had laid out an entire plan with safety measures and presented it to Splinter, going into details and she really thought they had nailed it. Had it not been for Splinters expression.

"And if that doesn't work we… " Don's voice faded as he picked up on Splinter's look.

"You.. you don't like it, do you? I mean, we can modify it! If you got any suggestions..."

"That isn't the problem."

It had de-railed pretty quickly from there as the discussion progressed into an argument. Splinter was a lot harder to convince than April had first assumed, she had been sure their measures would be sensible enough to win the rat over. This was not so.

"My son, while I understand your desire to go there yourself, it is simply too dangerous. You could be seen, and we have very dangerous enemies."

"But sensei! The others will help, and it's not a mission, we won't look for trouble! I swear! I should at least be able to see it! Even if it's just a short moment. Look if we just-"

"No. The risks are too high."

Splinter had thought that would be the end of it, but to his surprise his son kept going. Growing more frustrated and angry by the minute.

"it's only for a short time! This could work, I know it could. You can't keep me down here forever! It's not fair! I want to go too!"

April grimaced, this argument was starting to turn ugly. She wasn't sure what to say anymore, having been butted out of the argument at this point.

"My son... It is not possible to simply-"

"You're not my jailer! I should be able to at least go there once!"

Splinter started to get slightly unnerved, Don had never talked back like this before, he'd simply accepted a no with an explanation as of why. He had a suspicion he knew the cause. Perhaps a talk with April afterwards would be in order.

He decided he'd simply have to be frank with his son. "What would you do if they saw you? They do not care if you are there simply to just watch the sky, or go on a sightseeing trip! They do not care that you are disabled. All they will see is a mutant and an easy target!"

Don startled by his sensei's slightly angry words, he wasn't used to it, but he'd never been this rebellious before either.

"I…" Don paused. Clenching and unclenching his fists he looked into his father's eyes, and realised he wasn't going to win this, his father was unmoving, he wouldn't give in. More arguing was pointless at this stage. So, he turned and wheeled out of there, going straight for the lab.

"Donnie…!" April looked on as her friend fled to his sanctuary. This had perhaps not been such a good idea... She was about to follow when Splinters sharp voice cut through and she froze.

"April."

She turned stiffly. "I'm… I'm so, so sorry master Splinter I just.. Why can't you just let him? I didn't think it would end up like this and it's not-"

"Calm down, I know you meant well. But we're mutants. We can't simply go up there as we please. They know that. And while his brothers can escape and slink away into the shadows, unseen. This does not come as easy for Donatello, meaning just a visit at the wrong time and place could be deadly. No matter the intent." He watched as April slumped slightly, and sighed.

April bit her lip, looking down at the floor, she'd known it was risky, but she had been so sure it would all be fine. She hadn't really thought about what they would do if it wasn't. Maybe she was a bit too optimistic and naïve? What would she do if it really was the wrong time and place…? All their plans were about avoiding it, not about what they would do if it actually happened.

"You have to understand that we have many enemies who would do us harm, and few friends. It is risky even for my other sons, and I fear for their lives every time they go up there."

April bowed slightly and felt guilty for not realising this wasn't as simple as it had seemed. She wanted to help, but now she'd caused an argument instead.

"Donnie wouldn't… please don't be mad at him… I was the one who convinced and encouraged him to stand up to you and... I'm sorry if I messed something up." She hoped she hadn't. If Don and Splinter came at odds with each other because of this it would be all her fault…

* * *

Raphael clenched and unclenched his fists for the fifth time. Trying not to grit his teeth any more than he already had. The arguments between Donnie and Splinter had been heard all across the lair.

Mikey was trying to bury himself in a comic, he absolutely hated when people were fighting, and hoped things would calm down soon. Leo sat awkwardly in the couch, thumbing the remote.

Raph? He felt angry, and annoyed, and he wasn't sure what he should be angry at. Splinter for refusing? He wanted to protect them though, it wasn't really fair to be mad at him for only wanting Donnie safe, they all wanted each other safe.

Maybe the world, for being so messed up, or their enemies, or the events causing them to be in this situation. Maybe all of it.

"It's not fair…" He heard April mumble where she sat, she seemed unsure of what to do. Donnie had burst out of the dojo a short while earlier, before April had joined them in the living room after her talk with Splinter. They'd all agreed to give him some space first before checking in on him.

Leo cleared his throat. "Yeeaa.. uh.. At least you get to train now?" Leo commented trying to lighten the mood. He realised too late it just made everything more awkward. Not the time to bring that up. Not at all, he silently berated himself. _Good one, reeal smooth there._

Raph didn't know what to do with himself, but he was not dealing with this awkward situation, so he got up and stalked away. He wanted to do something… he just didn't know exactly what yet.

"Sooo.." Mikey dawdled. "That didn't go so well."

"I think everyone heard that..." Leo sighed and massaged his temples.

"I'm the worst friend ever." April sighed loudly.

"Look, we appreciate you tried, alright? Even if things didn't work out."

"Yea… I mean, hey if life was fair I'd go to that pizza restaurant in a second and have a family dinner, or the movies! Something nice, ya know?" Mikey added.

April smiled a little, and realised how sad that was. They actually couldn't even do that, despite the fact that it was something so utterly normal. None of them could, really. Except April.

"Sorry I… I didn't think about that. There is a lot of stuff I take for granted." She sighed again.

Donnie just had more on the list of things he couldn't do than his brothers, that didn't mean his brothers had as much freedom as a normal human being though.

Their whole family were limited, and Splinter stayed down here just as much as Donnie, she realised.

"I… should go talk to Donnie." She added, after a while.

Leo smiled a little, he hoped things would smooth out soon, so he didn't have to butt in. His smile faded though when April came back way too soon.

"Donnie's gone."

"What?"

Leo stared at her for a few seconds. "But we saw him go into his lab like an hour ago, there is literally no way I could have missed him leave." He got up from the couch. "Hold on I'll help you search."

Mikey got up as well and they started with the lab, making sure they hadn't missed him sulking somewhere.

* * *

 _Earlier…_

Donnie entered his lab, he was so… mad, and upset and.. he wasn't sure how to deal with it. He really wished he could kick something. It seemed like it would be a really satisfying thing to do, the way he saw Raph do it sometimes. Donnie could hit things, but he couldn't get the same force behind it, he settled for throwing one of his wrenches across the room.

As he watched it hit the floor with a clang, Don started phasing back and forth, twisting his wheelchair around.

"Stupid injury, stupid legs..! Stubborn sensei!" Throwing things around wasn't very productive, he had to admit. Also, it was to say the least challenging to get stuff back off the ground, making it less worth it, he decided and glared at the wrench.

Sighing he rolled over to his table, running his hand along the edge, why couldn't he just have been like his brothers? Everything would be simpler then, easier. But no, he had to go into that tunnel.

He caught himself going down that train of thought again, no regrets would change what had happened. While he couldn't change the past… maybe he could change the future? He could prove he could do it, he would do it.

Quickly he rolled over to one of his shelves, grabbing a bag. He'd show his father he could do it and that it would be fine. Carefully he left his lab by the other exit to avoid the others. However, upon coming to the edge by the subway tracks he was starting to feel like he had not thought this through.

Glancing down Donnie was definitely starting to have second thoughts. "Maybe this is a really, really bad idea on my own…" Inspecting the edge there was just no way he would be able to get down without help, he hadn't really bothered going here for a while. He berated himself for not building a ramp, everywhere else in the lair had one, this should too.

There was no way down except jumping and climbing, oh the joy. Or he supposed, grab a helmet, go over the edge and hope for the best.

Looking around there was no other way down, this was it. He couldn't even leave like a normal person if he wanted to.

"Can I do nothing on my own?!" He angrily grabbed the wheelchair to jerk it back around, misjudging how close he was to the edge. He felt his heart sink when the wheel did not connect with the ground, he felt himself start tipping.

 _Oh no… No no no.._

He desperately attempted to lean the other way, but it was futile, he yelped as he disappeared down over the edge.

* * *

Scouring the lab, they couldn't find anything,

"The wheelchair is gone too." Mikey commented as he looked around. He was pretty sure one of Don's bag were missing, he wasn't sure why though. Did Raph go on a scavenge run for him..? … Probably not unless he could teleport.

"Do you think Donnie invented a teleporter?"

"Mikey, I don't think that's really doable." April commented but smiled a little at his random idea as to why Don was gone.

"Well, he can't have left the lair. He gotta be somewhere."

"Alright, Mikey you check the rooms, April take the kitchen and dojo and I'll search the rest."

"Donnieeee~?" Mikey peeked into Raph's room after having checked the other ones.

"Mikey you are not supposed to go in here without my permission." Came a grumpy voice from the bed.

"I know bro, but Donnie is gone."

"… What do you mean gone?"

"Uh, as in, he is not in his lab or room, and we can't find him gone..?" That got Raph moving at least. Now they were all looking around.

"The hell.." They all stood puzzled in the media pit. "Nothing?"

"Nope, nada. You think he left?"

"How would he even do that? Did you really check he wasn't stuck in the bathroom?"

"Yep, trice."

"Maybe he went to talk to Splinter..?"

April decided to have another look around while the others argued about if they had really looked everywhere. She went to the lab, trying to think about what she would do if she were angry, maybe find someplace to be alone? But the lab was isolated already...

"But we were out there all the time.." She walked out of the other door. "He must have gone this way.." But then there was just the subway track, and an edge he couldn't actually-

She stopped when she thought she heard something.

".. Hello..? Donnie?" She looked behind her, but he wasn't by the wall on the sides either. Was he hiding?

She heard the noise again, this time she was sure it was a groan. On a whim, she walked up to the edge and looked over it.

The first thing she saw was an overturned wheelchair, and underneath it was Donnie sprawled out.

"Oh my god! GUYS! I found him!" She quickly jumped down.

* * *

Don groaned, he felt his arm and head ache terribly, why though..? Had he fallen out of bed? It shouldn't feel that hard to hit the floor… The ground felt wrong though, and he was in an uncomfortable angle, as if he was lying over something. No not something, tracks. It was tracks, he fell off the edge.

He tried to move his head, only to realise there was a wheel right there. Don blinked a few times and stared at it, right. Wheelchair. Must have gotten on top of him as he landed... he hoped his legs were okay. He couldn't really tell from this angle, but his arm had definitely had better days.

He was sure he heard someone say something, a hello perhaps? He wasn't sure, maybe his imagination was playing tricks on him…

As he tried to push himself up on his elbows he felt a nausea building.

Donnie was pretty sure he had hit his head when he had fallen, because the next thing he knew he was looking at the dojo's ceiling with a horrible headache. When did he get here? Did he black out?

"Uh.. wha..? What happened?" He tried to sit up but was stopped.

"You fell of the edge, you hit your head and you should be resting."

He felt a lump of dread building as he heard his father speak. If he was mad before he was sure he'd only made it worse now.

".. I'm.. I'm sorry, I didn't.. I wasn't.." He hadn't meant to do that. He didn't want his father to think he would be stupid enough to try go off the edge like that, just because they had argued. That would be rather embarrassing. "I just.. misjudged how close I was."

"Ssh, it's alright, accidents happen. I'm not mad."

"You aren't..?"

"No."

Don relaxed slightly. He wasn't sure how his father thought it was only an accident, that he wasn't trying to leave and scolded him for it, small mercies.

"But worried. You made us all very worried."

He winched. "Sorry.."

"It will not do for our only doctor to go harm himself."

Don glanced at Splinter who wore a slight smile, he'd never called him doctor before… even though he had been aiming to be their family doctor for a long time now. He smiled back a little. "I'm... I'm sorry I got so mad at you…"

"Do not worry my son, I understand how you feel, and I am sorry for being harsh. But sometimes we must face reality. I wish I could do more for you, however I am but an old rat."

In truth, Don wasn't sure what to feel, he was frustrated to feel so limited, but he didn't want to fight with his father. Splinter had been there for him so many times, and he felt the fight go out of him as he saw the genuine worry in his father's eyes, it wasn't really worth it. They were both stuck here.

That didn't mean he didn't want to, he desperately wanted to go out, especially lately when his brothers had started to go topside, sometimes he felt like a clipped bird stuck in a cage. It wasn't his father's fault though… it would be bad for them to be at odds with each other, he knew that. He knew his father didn't like their predicament either.

Don felt tears fall on his arm, he hadn't even realised and he couldn't stop them. He quickly tried to wipe them away with his hand, feeling slightly embarrassed, he didn't want to cry like some immature child.

The warmth and smell of old fabric and fur slowly wrapped around him, and he realised he was being pulled into a hug.

"I know my son, I know…" Splinter slowly soothed and simply held Donnie close when he didn't reject him.

* * *

Mikey whistled as he put the bag back in its place, as they'd helped Don up again he'd went back to get the wheelchair and found the missing bag there. Deciding he wasn't really up for another argument between Splinter and Donnie, he'd decided to simply remove it and say nothing of it.

He wasn't sure if his brother had tried to actually leave by rolling off the edge like that, it sounded a bit too reckless for him, but none the less he thought Donnie could do with one less scolding at this point regardless of how or why it had happened.

When Splinter had left the dojo, it didn't take long before Don was greeted by his brothers and April, he apologised for worrying them and explained how he had gotten down there in the first place. Donnie really hoped they couldn't tell he had been sad.

The final verdict was a mild concussion and a sprained or possibly broken ankle, which he noted when he had seen the swelling of his foot.

That had added the unwanted problem of having to keep it tightly supported and make sure the swelling went down. He had to watch out for the wrappings being too tight, making sure it didn't stop the blood flow, a tricky balancing act when you couldn't actually feel if it was tight, or if it was hurting. So, he had to keep an eye on it regularly.

Donatello ended up spending more time lying in bed and on the couch, to not jostle his leg around too much until it healed. It was dangerous to move it around since he wouldn't notice if he hit it somewhere or aggravated the injury. It was frustrating, but at least he got to spend time with April watching some movies now and then. That was nice, at least when he didn't make a fool of himself, he silently cursed his social clumsiness while April went to make some popcorn.

"Ow!" Mikey held is arm and glared at Raph when he found himself to suddenly be elbowed. Raph simply jerked his head sideways, and left.

"..?" Mikey looked towards him in confusion for a short moment before getting up from the couch and following, taking a bag of chips with him as he went. He didn't bother asking them to pause the movie as he'd seen Jumanji at least twelve times by now.

Whatever this was Raph wanted something, and he was usually more upfront with what he wanted than this. Mikey's curiosity was definitely peaking as he slowly slipped into Raph's room.

* * *

Donatello found himself to a rude awakening as someone was shaking him. He mumbled unhappily.

"-n"

"Don!"

"Donnie wake up!"

"..Huh?" He opened his eyes, blinking away the blur until he realised the person shaking him was Raph. "What? What time is it..? Is someone hurt?"

"No."

"Then why are you waking me up..?" He carefully propped himself up slightly and rubbed his eyes.

"… Cause I gotta show you something, and this is the best time."

".. Really? Now?" He sighed. He was about to tell his brother no and go back to bed, but the way he was hopefully looking at him, nearly pleading, made him pause.

"…" Don looked at Raph properly for a moment, he actually seemed to try contain a bit of excitement as well, it was way too late.. or early, for this. But he obviously had something in mind he really wanted to show.

"Alright… as long as I get to sleep later.." He said with a yawn.

"Yea sure, you can sleep all you want afterwards." Then Raph suddenly pulled the blanket off and scooped him up, which took Don by surprise.

"Ah!" He grabbed a hold of Raph and stared at him in surprise. "You know I can do it myself." He said pointedly.

"Shhh.. Yea I know, but we're not bringing the wheelchair, it'll just be in the way, this is quicker." Before Don could protest he changed Don's position and adjusted him to a piggyback ride hold.

"What?" Don quickly exclaimed and had to grab for Raph's shoulders so he wouldn't fall backwards.

"Ssshh! You're gonna wake the whole lair up."

"What exactly are we doing?" Don asked, this time whispering.

"You'll see, just stay quiet."

Don held on and watched as Raph walked out of his room and towards the living room. So not Raph's room or any of the other's rooms... or the lab.. or the kitchen.

".. Raph..?" He asked, feeling unsure when Raph was heading towards the turnstiles.

he didn't respond, and kept walking. Don nearly held his breath and glanced behind him as they left the lair. Raph jumped down the tracks, taking the step he couldn't on his own. Then they kept going.

He didn't dare say anything for a few minutes, realising why Raph didn't want anyone else to wake up, he didn't want that either. He took the time to look around them, after a while as the silence dragged on he decided to break it.

"Are.. are we really..?" He wasn't sure what he was hoping for, but this was sort of exciting, but he also felt quite nervous.

"Yea… Just for a while. We'll be back, that's a promise."

Raph walked through the sewer tunnels as silently as he possibly could, trying not to jostle his brother around too much. Even if he couldn't feel it, his foot was still hurt.

"Sensei is going to be so mad.." Don commented worriedly.

"Then let him. Besides we ain't doing anything dangerous, promise. Just a little midnight stroll is all. No one will notice, no crime, no fighting, no nothing." Raph said firmly as he kept walking. "'Besides.. you haven't even seen the real damn sky for shell's sake. You deserve that much."

"…." Don suddenly felt lost for words as his emotions welled up, not trusting his voice he simply rested his head on his brother's neck and nodded.

Raph had decided that enough was enough and he was going to take some things into his own hands.

Sure, not bringing Donnie on patrol or their missions were perfectly reasonable, but not allowing him out at all was just plain stupid. In his opinion. Sure, there **could** be a risk they were seen, and they **could** get attacked. But then that was all theory of what **could** happen, didn't mean it **would**. Not as long as he was in charge. There was no point worrying about what could happen and not do anything because of it, worrying about that stuff never stopped him and everything had gone fine so far. Despite Leo's nagging about thinking before charging.

If they were careful, no one would notice and it'd all be worth it.

"Okay you got a good grip? I'm gonna start climbing now."

"Yea."

"Letting go of your legs, just hold tight." Carefully he eased Don's legs down and let them hang uselessly while he grabbed onto the ladder. Carefully he started to climb up, trusting his brother could hold onto him long enough. After easing the cover to the side, he glanced around. When the coast was clear he carefully grabbed Don's shell and started pushing him up above him.

As soon as Don reached he started dragging himself forward with his arms, getting help from Raph who pushed from behind. As soon as there was space Raph climbed out, helping his brother adjust his legs and then carefully picked him up again.

"Where exactly are we going..?" Don questioned as he looked around in wonder, it was a dirty alley, but he didn't really care, he was OUT. No sewer, no tunnels, fresh.. well as fresh as air could get in a dirty alley in New York.. and the smells were different. He kept looking around, tasting the air, taking it all in while Raph started climbing up a fire escape.

"Just you wait an' see."

He couldn't see him smile, but Don could hear it in his voice, whatever it was he had something specific in mind.

"Okay close your eyes for a bit."

"Okay." Don decided he'd trust Raph with anything, and closed them. He felt Raph move as he walked, they were moving up, and then forward, he was pretty sure there was another upward movement and then they stopped. He was very tempted to look, but decided against it.

"I'll put you down now."

Don nodded and slowly let go as he felt Raph shift him around. As he was sat down he placed his hands on the sides for support, feeling the cold concrete underneath his hands. Raph sat down beside him.

"Okay, look upwards, and open your eyes." Raph instructed. Don did.

He gasped as he was met with an infinite black canvas above him, littered with stars across it. A little to the left he saw the moon, it was a new moon, just a thin curve casting a soft glow. Some of the stars were moving… planes. Those were planes.. and stars... and the moon, and that might be a planet?

Raph couldn't help but smile as he watched Donnie stare at the sky, gaping. He felt like it was worth every bit of scolding he was going to get should they get busted. It was like they were children again, making new discoveries in their playful adventures.

"It's.. beautiful." Don grinned wide, he was hoping he could see it for himself one day, and now here he was. Carefully he looked down and around in the area, they were sitting behind a billboard on a rooftop of some kind.

"I.. I don't know what to say.. thank you." He said as he realised Raph was sitting next to him. Without him he wouldn't be here.

"No problem little bro~ Don't forget to thank Mikey later as well." Raph grinned wide and patted his brother's head.

Don smiled and swatted Raph's hand away playfully. "Heh, I'm not that little. I'm pretty sure the tape measure says I'm taller than you~" He made an attempt at patting Raph's head but he ducked away.

They played around for a while, then watched the stars some more, Don started pointing out the constellations he'd seen in his books, explaining them as he went along. Raph let him talk and listened even if it wasn't something that was of great interest to him, or something he understood all that well.

Before they knew it, hours had gone by. Don paused in his talking and watched as he noticed the first rays of the sun.

"Oh, the sun."

They watched the sun slowly rise, not even Raph got to see it that often, so he took the moment to enjoy it as well. Reluctantly he also realised that was their cue.

"We should probably head back soon, I'm not sure Mikey's _'cover'_ is gonna last much longer."

"Cover?" Donnie raised an eye ridge.

"Well, he wanted to help when I asked, he said he'd take care of it, not sure how." Raph shrugged. "But we better get back, we're starting to get too visible out here." He gingerly picked himself up before helping Don.

"Oh you're cold, should have brought a blanket."

"I don't really mind. I can't feel it, though we should probably get back..."

When they got back to the lair Raph sneaked in through the lab as carefully has he could. They practically held their breaths as someone was clearly in the kitchen, being up way too early for his liking.

"…" Raph tip toed and sneaked as if his life depended on it, he did rather not get busted if he could avoid it.

Upon entering Donnie's room they both sighed in relief, as he approached the bed the lump lying under the covers suddenly burst up, making Raph jump and they just barely contain their screams.

"Great you guys made it! Was it fun?! Did you enjoy it? Did you take a picture?" Mikey grinned like a Cheshire cat, partly because it seemed their ploy had been successful but also because he didn't have to spend more time lying in Don's bed pretending to be him, and that meant he could go and sleep properly again.

"Ssshh!"

"Oh right! Sorry." Mikey apologised as he moved so Don could be placed on the bed.

"It was great. Thank you both." Don smiled.

"What's going on in here?"

They froze as Splinter appeared in the doorway.

"Nothing!"

"Nothing? I can't imagen you'd all gather here for nothing..?" He said observing them as Mikey seemed to get more nervous by the minute.

"Uh.. well.." Raph hesitated.

"They just woke me up saying something about doing some fun stuff together today, to cheer me up." Don helpfully filled it. "They didn't get to what stuff though before you came."

"Hmm I see, that is good then. Doing activities together is important. Might I suggest joining me for some tea?"

They all nodded and watched as Splinter walked away.

"Sleep you shall be missed…" Mikey said in a dramatic whisper.

"Guess we're stuck hanging out all morning. Sorry."

"Nah it's fine, we'll make it fun! And we can catch up on sleep in Donnie's lab pretending to do something later, right?" Mikey said hopefully.

"I.. I guess?"

"Great!"

Raph groaned unhappily as Mikey pulled them both in for a hug.

"Though seriously, did you take a picture? I wanna see Don's face when he got to see it."

"I forgot."

"Guys, I'm right here."

"Aw man you promised."

* * *

 **Notes:** _From this point on updates are gonna be a bit slow, just so you know!_


	16. An Ordinary Morning

**First things first, wow, it's been over a month? Time flies and I've been so busy, updates had to be put on ice, I've had like 10 school assignments and a minor surgery. All went well though, but it sure has kept me from writing. I don't even wanna talk about the pain-relief-meds-ended-pain, oh my god. xD Sure don't want to know what a major surgery feels like.**

 **I have a bunch of half finished chapters though, and while this wasn't the chapter I wanted to post first, I figured I'd post this one since it was actually finished and you guys could get a little something to read. The chapter I wanted to post will hopefully be done soon though! Cause I can't wait to get the bad guys more involved hahah. Also I need to practice writing combat so that's a good thing.**

* * *

The alarm bleared loudly and a big hand stretched out from under the covers of the bed, tiredly searching and smashing down on the button.

Donnie sat up and yawned, stretching his arms one at a time and then rubbing his eyes. Watching the clock, it was time to get up.

Pulling the blankets away he started the day by massaging his legs, to make sure the blood flow was going properly, it was important to do when you sat on your bum all day. His legs weren't as thick as his brothers', while thicker than a human's due to his natural physiology, they didn't have the muscles his brothers had worked up. In comparison, his looked like toothpicks, but at least they weren't in comparison to April's.

Finishing up he dragged his legs one at a time over the bed before stretching out to grab the wheelchair handles. He pulled himself into the chair with practiced ease, unlike his legs, his arm muscles were just as good as his brothers'.

Donnie yawned as he wheeled out of his room, it was time for some breakfast, coffee specifically.

"Morning.." He mumbled as he got into the kitchen, Leo already being there drinking his tea.

"Morning! There is a pot of warm water." He informed him.

"Thanks..." How Leo could sound so awake this early was beyond him, he could barely have a normal conversation before he got his coffee to wake up properly.

He reached for the shelf when a hand shot past him.

"Wait, let me get that."

Don grumbled annoyedly, he liked to do things on his own, as what he could do was limited, and those few things he absolutely didn't want help with. Leo had a tendency to step on his toes unintentionally sometimes when he wanted to help, ironically, as he was the one trying the most not to do that, perhaps that was the reason why. Leo was overthinking again.

"Leo." He grumbled when he was about to get the filter too, that's where he drew the line.

"Right, sorry.." Leo quietly went back to the table, but Donnie could feel him keeping an eye on him.

He sighed, it was too early for this, he didn't need a baby sitter and he'd only ever spilled hot coffee like.. two times this month. There was no reason to keep track of his every movement like he was going to spontaneously combust. The others spilled just as much, if not more, they just weren't as likely to get hit by it, but rather hit the floor in front of them instead.

Grabbing the filter he decided to take an extra spoon of ground coffee, he felt he could use something extra strong today. Especially since he needed some things done today, things he hated to do.

In the past he'd been sloppier about it, but since April started coming over more often… he felt the need to not skip out on it. He didn't want to smell like dead fish, and that was exactly what an unwashed turtle smelled like. Horribly, sunbathed, dead, fish. Mikey smelled like that from time to time, and he did not want to be in that boat, not with April coming for visits.

He could take showers, quick rinses and such, his later wheelchairs could take water just fine, so he showered often enough, but he couldn't do a proper scrubbing, at least not on his own. Which was why he found himself knocking on Raph's door, after a few cups of coffee and some waking up.

"Raph? You awake..?"

He waited for a reply. When none came he decided to give it another hour and try again later. Forty minutes later though Raph came drudging out of his room yawning. He looked tired, maybe after breakfast.

That turned out to be the better decision, as Raph gave Mikey the death glare just by greeting him. After breakfast, his mood improved exponentially though, so Donnie decided to ask then, the earlier he could have it over with the better.

"Uh Raph?"

"Yea?" He replied without taking his eyes off the TV.

"Could I.. could you.. help me..?"

That seemed to get his attention, to be fair though he didn't actually ask for help all that often, and Raph knew Don hated it, because it exposed and showed all the things he just couldn't do that a completely healthy person could do. Raph was pretty sure he'd hate it too, so he only helped if Don asked for it, unless Don's stubbornness got the better of him, that did happen on occasion.

"Sure? What you need help with?"

"Well.. I could really use a proper cleaning." He half mumbled and gave a point towards the shower.

"Oh. Right." Great, one of those. Raph didn't particularly like those either, helping Donnie shower wasn't exactly on the fun list of things to do, but Donnie didn't like it either so hey that was something in common. Both wanted it over and done with, the quicker the better.

"Alright." He cracked his fingers and got up. "Let's get this over and done with." He grabbed the wheelchair and quickly raced off with him.

Don grabbed the handles and held on, he wasn't sure why his brothers found the need to push him around in such a hurry sometimes, though he didn't mind the increased speed. Unless the person was Mikey and he was listening to music and dancing around and using his wheelchair as part of the dance routine, with him in it. It only happened once, when they were eleven.

The shower was a rather quick affair, though they always had to spend some extra time scrubbing the shell, to make sure no dirt was stuck between the scutes. Don was lying on the wet towel on his plastron while Raph scrubbed stubbornly at a spot on his shell, at least when it came to scrubbing the shell, they all had some issues with reaching, sometimes Donnie got to help scrubbing his brothers' shells too. He actually liked that, because then he helped them with something, he preferred helping, rather than getting help, so he would take what he could get. Even if it was just shell scrubbing and caring for minor cuts.

"Thanks Raph.." He smiled a little as Raph finished up.

"Yea whatever, just don't make this a weekly thing."

"Hah."

He was glad he'd managed to get it done early, because next thing they knew April was coming home from school as he was drying off in the towel. She'd brought hot chocolate with cream in a can, and tiny miniature marshmallows, or baby mallows, as Mikey called them.

That was a tasty experience, he sighed contentedly as he pulled the blanket around him. He was clean, dry and now warm. April was here and there was a warm mug of sweets and chocolate in his hands, worth it.

* * *

 **It's a short moment of little everyday things, and some other life related stuff, but nothing big, more of a drabble really. The ones I hope to get done next has more story and plot in them, ideally I'd want to get at least one of those out by next week, we'll see what happens though as I have an assignment due this weekend. Fingers crossed!**


	17. Hi! I'm Timothy!

**Still not the chapter I wanted to finish! But that one is a tad longer, so I finished this one instead because I got side tracked... Totally not avoiding my assignment due Sunday. *cought***

* * *

Donnie stared wordlessly at the kid his brothers had accidentally dragged home with them.

"So like.. what kind of ninja are you? what do you do? Do you like.. twist around and attack bad guys with the wheels? Or ooh! With the mind?! Does it have rocket launchers?" The kid asked excitedly and inspected the wheelchair."

Donnie sighed.

"No, no and no. I'm the doctor. I'm not a ninja."

"Oh." The kid straightened up and seemed to think about what to say. "That's.. cool too."

"Yes. It is." Don replied flatly. "I make sure they don't bleed to death. But I will and can hit you if you don't stop being in the way."

"Got it!"

This kid was so.. annoying. What was even more annoying was the fact his brothers had just bailed on him. They didn't know what to do with the kid and as another emergency had surfaced they'd simply left him to look after the kid. With a 'try not to let Splinter find out' instruction. Yea right. As if that was gonna happen.

"I gotta go do a thing. Just…" He looked around for a bit, and pointed at the couch. "Stay there? We got some video games. Okay? Just don't.. go anywhere."

* * *

Sometime later Donnie exited the bathroom and looked around, only to find the kid wasn't around anywhere.

"Where the shell did he go?! Uh.. What was his name..? Hey kid?! Where are you?" He called carefully, he hoped Splinter was having his afternoon meditation, he was less easily disturbed then.

"Oh please be here.." He peeked into the kitchen, no one. A sense of dread caught him and he quickly wheeled off to the lab. To his utter relief, the kid wasn't there either, but then where-

 ** _Crash!_**

Donnie froze and glanced behind him. _The dojo!_

He hurried over and into the dojo as quickly as he could, and grimaced when he saw the weapons rack had fallen over, the kid was playing around with a practice sword.

"Hey! Put that down right now..!"

The kid stopped. "Oh hi there! Sorry, it took sooo long and you weren't coming back, so I got bored. But I found this really cool thing!" He happily slashed with the sword in the air.

Donnie gave him a death glare. "It's NOT a 'cool thing', it's a weapon! Put. That. Down. You can hurt yourself! Besides, I asked you to stay! And I was coming back, I'm just not fast, okay? You try moving around in a wheelchair!"

"OH can I try it?!"

"No!"

"Awww…" Timothy sighed in disappointment. Then he smiled and tried to make a stab forward.

"You think you could like.. ask your master to train me? I think I'm getting the hang of this!"

"Double no! Now give me that!" Donnie wheeled forward and tried to make a grab for it, but the kid was too into it, paying him no mind as he tried for a jump. Don felt more frustrated than ever being stuck in his chair, he would have loved to just get up and take the sword from the kid.

"I swear when my brothers come back I'll strangle them.." He grumbled annoyedly, then gasped as he just about dodged being stabbed in the face, Timothy had twisted around and stumbled, thrusting the sword forward in attempts to grab at something to stop the fall with.

"Oh huh.. oops?"

"Are you CRAZY?! I told you to drop it **because** you can cause damage! You are not trained and you should not be playing with that!" He bellowed angrily and finally had the chance to grab the sword to prevent him from having more accidents.

At that moment the door opened up. "What is going on here?!" Splinter called, clearly annoyed for being interrupted, then he paused. Seeing an unknown human holding a sword that was right by his son's face, who had grabbed the sword and was in the process of yanking it out of the intruder's hands. He was ready to jump forward and defend his son when Donnie reacted.

"Wait! It's not what it looks like!"

Splinter stopped and straightened up, looked questioningly at them, waiting for an explanation.

"This is uhm.. what uh.. what was your name again..?"

"Timothy! But you can call me the-"

"No, that's fine. This is Timothy. My _**brothers**_ picked him up by accident. Then they got an emergency and _**left**_ _ **me**_ to watch over him." Donnie said and barely contained his annoyance at his brothers. "And I was just trying to get him to stop playing around with things he should **not** be touching." Don finished and yanked the sword to hold it away from the kid.

"I see.." Splinter scratched his chin and looked at their current problem.

"Perhaps… you could go make some tea?" He suggested. Timothy seemed super happy about it and nodded, then he ran off.

"Right away, sir!"

Donnie sighed and wanted to just go to bed at this point.

"Does he know how to find this place?"

"No. According to my brothers he got stuck in the doors, and apparently he wasn't conscious for most of the ride… I checked though and he's probably not gonna have any permanent damage, maybe a mild concussion."

"Hmm.. this is indeed troublesome."

"I-" Donnie heard the tone on his headset. "Oh, hold on. They're calling me." He pushed the button on the side. "Hello?"

 _"Donnie! Raph thinks I'm nice and funny! And he's totally vomiting!"_

"Wait what? Hold on Mikey, what's happened?"

 _"Raph got bitten by Fishface and now he's all crazy and green! And I mean like way greener than usual!"_

"What? Who is Fishface?"

 _"Oh that's Xever, he's been mutated into this fish thing, I named him Fishface! And stuckguy and that.. other guy made him legs, and he bit Raph! Leo says he thinks the fish is poisonous!"_

"That would be venomous, if he's bitten. Can you get him home right now?"

 _"I dunno dude.. Like, we're in the middle of a battle and-"_

He heard a loud crash in the background.

 _"Oh man Leo got thrown into the wall. I dunno what to do? Can you send splinter or somethin? They're shooting lasers! And I can't get Raph out without Leo getting pummeled!"_

"Okay, send me the address and just hold on! We're coming!" He hanged up and looked towards Splinter.

"The guys are in trouble, I think Raph has been poisoned and we need to go there!" Donnie quickly informed Splinter, who reacted immediately.

"No, you're staying here, I will go get Raphael and I'm sorry, but it looks like you will have to look after our guest a bit longer."

"But sensei! I need to get the antidote! And we don't know how much time we have! If you carry me I could make it on the way there? I mean, I don't have to follow all the way into battle. Just far enough so we can get the antidote to him as quickly as possible. Worst case we only got minutes!"

That made Splinter pause. Then he nodded and darted forwards, grabbing Donnie and rushed towards the lab. Donnie could barely believe it! He was going out, which rarely happened. It was horrifying and thrilling and the pressure was on, Raph was potentially dying. It made him feel lightheaded, but it also brought on determination, and a sense of relief. His dad was allowing him to come with him, which meant he could treat Raph faster than sitting around worrying in the lair, he didn't want to go through that again. Not this time.

"Grab what you need. I will.. take care of our guest in the meantime." Splinter was out before he realised. Placing him in the training wheelchair that was placed in the lab. Don quickly grabbed one of his field kit boxes and packed it up with everything he needed. This wasn't the first time he was allowed to come with on a mission, but he really hoped it wouldn't be like the first time, he really hoped not. He didn't want to think about that first time if he could help it.

"Ready!" He called.

* * *

Splinter darted towards the kitchen.

Timothy hummed to himself as he looked through their teabags, there wasn't an awful lot, and most of it was green tea. He wasn't sure how anyone could drink that stuff. Maybe it had something to do with them being turtles? Or maybe there was some secret healthy ninja thing? He pondered as he chose the one that seemed the least gross, the water was aaalmost ready. The rat must be their master, how cool was that?! He couldn't wait to ask if he could be trained into a ninja too, this was the coolest day in his life! He was making tea, for ninjas!

He didn't even notice as Splinter entered the kitchen, turning he jolted in surprise.

"Oh hi there sir, uh.. Mr. rat sir?" He wasn't quite sure about his name. "The tea is almost ready!"

"Thank you, that is very kind of you. Oh? What's that?"

"Huh?" Timothy turned, and after that he couldn't quite remember what happened, he couldn't recall falling asleep either.

* * *

"Oh man.. Raph hold on!" Mikey called before he had to turn around and block an enemy attack, Leo soon joined him and they had to work together just to keep the enemy off of Raph, who was lying on the floor mumbling nonsense.

"Whatever you do don't get bit!" Leo called.

"Yea I got THAT memo!"

"I'll enjoy filleting all of you, one by one, nice and slow~" Fishface called and smirked as he twisted his new legs into a solid kick.

"You're nasty!" Mikey called and blew his tongue at him as he blocked. The blow was more powerful than he expected, causing him to get knocked back a bit.

"Dude..! He hits hard!" He complained. Leo huffed and charged, slashing unrelenting with his katanas, jumping when Fishface tried to knock his feet from under him again.

"Not falling for that again! Ouf!" He wasn't expecting the tail to come up and hit him in the face though!

"Leo!" Mikey rushed forward, avoiding the lasers, he'd at least been able to set up some debris so Raph wouldn't get hit by them. That would've been a bummer, big time.

* * *

Donnie really tried not to complain, as he laid back to back against Splinter who was running along the sewer tunnels. He had a firm grip on his box and tried to mix the antidote as they went based on Mikey's descriptions.

He was attached to Splinter by an improvised harness, making him feel like a kindergartener in some ways. He shook his head and focused on the antidote, carefully pouring the liquids into a vial, it wasn't easy to go by eyesight alone down in the sewer tunnels, or when moving. Just doing this in this environment alone made him cringe, but they were pressed for time and there weren't many options.

"Done!" He triumphantly exclaimed and corked the vial, preparing to load it into his syringe.

A moment later Splinter stopped, they were as close to the location as they were gonna get without surfacing.

"You stay here, I will bring the antidote. Wait here and don't make a noise." Splinter stated before carefully loosening the harness and putting him down. "Be ready as we might need to grab you on the go."

"Okay." Donnie couldn't really complain now either, it had been one of the conditions, he wasn't allowed all the way into the battle. He briefly explained how to inject the antidote and watched as Splinter put his hood on and exited. Now all he could do was wait, and hope that he'd done everything right.

* * *

Mikey and Leo's relief where palpable when a figure suddenly shot out and hit Fishface in the back, he never saw what was coming and went through the wall. Stockman paused in his laser shooting, retreating when he realised he was suddenly alone against the enemy, who had suddenly gotten unexpected and unknown backup.

Splinter rushed forward and quickly hit Raph with the antidote. He watched in worry as Raph mumbled, as soon as he saw a sign of him recovering he quickly hosted him up on his back.

"Come. We leave now, before they recover or come back."

"Hai!" They quickly rushed after him.

* * *

Donnie sat still in the tunnel, and found himself anxiously waiting anyway, he wasn't sure if he should call Mikey again or if they were in battle right now. It wasn't truly important, and if something came up they would probably call him, but he sure wasn't happy about being in the sitting, waiting and worrying scenario yet again, despite actually coming with this time. He sighed.

Then he heard it, a splash and the sound of feet, familiar feet. It wasn't long until they came into view.

"You made it..!"

"Donnie?" Leo said in surprise.

"There was no time, I made the antidote on the way here." He explained as his brothers where surprised to see him, Raph was slowly starting to wake up a little as well, at least he wasn't vomiting anymore.

"Guys? What the shell happened back there?"

"You got bitten bro, but Don's anti-thingy fixed you up." Mikey supplied, as he helped shift Raphael to a hold between him and Leo while splinter picked Donnie up on his back and put the harness in place again. Donnie hugged his box tight so as to not drop anything.

"Now we go. Quickly." They nodded.

"Hey.. I didn't know.. we had a Donnie shaped backpack." Came Raph's offhand comment a short moment later.

"I'm not a backpack. It IS me."

"It sounds like Donnie too. A Donnie bag."

"Bro, I think you need some more time to get all that woozy stuff out of you."

"Just be quiet. We're soon home." Leo sighed.

"He might have some side effects for at least a while. If he keeps hallucinating after a few hours though, we should probably start to worry." Don commented.

"Sssh guys." Leo hushed them a second time, feeling slightly embarrassed, now his sensei could see what he had to deal with and how little they sometimes listened to him. He was thankful though that he didn't seem to bring it up, Splinter was more focused on getting back home and making sure they were not followed or seen. But a single look from him made the others quiet down, which he envied a little, he wished he could do that too.

* * *

Their trip back ended up going smoothly. Leo went with Raph to the couch to rest, and was surprised to find a knocked out timothy there.

"What the- Oh.. OH. Shell." He realised they'd completely forgotten about that.

"Yea. Thanks a lot for that by the way." Came Donnie's sarcastic comment as Splinter put him down to get his wheelchair.

"Ooh can I try the Donnie bag?" Mikey suddenly asked. "It seems fun."

"No. I'm done being a backpack."

"How about a Mikey bag~? I wanna try that too!"

"Ask Leo, there is no way I could carry you."

"Oh! Right! Leo..!"

"No."

"D'aww man.."

"Ask Raph when he's better."

"But Raph's gonna use it for revenge."

"Then that would be your own fault. So… what are we gonna do about him?" Leo pointed towards Timothy, which Mikey moved out of the way so they could place Raph on the couch.

"He is not my problem anymore at least, you guys go dump him where you found him or something, preferably before he wakes up and learns how to find this place. And never, EVER do that to me again! I'm **not** a babysitter!"

"Huh? Whatcha talkin' about again? Where's Fishface?!" Raph suddenly bolted up to sitting.

"Nothing. Raph. They're gone. Just.. rest. Okay?" Leo said and firmly pushed him back down again.

A few hours later he was fine and barely remembered anything of what had happened after he was bitten, or any of the stuff he'd rambled on about. Mikey certainly took advantage of it.

Donnie sighed has he heard Mikey make something up that Raph 'had said', which caused him to throw another fit. Someone was having fun.

* * *

Timothy groaned as he woke up.

"Huh? Oh right, the tea." He sat up, only to find he was by a building on the side of a street. "Wha?" Looking around, there was no kitchen, no secret lair and no turtles or the rat to be found.

"Woah, I don't even remember how I got here." He confusedly walked home, wondering what had happened and why he couldn't remember anything after he'd been in the kitchen.

* * *

 **There are a few past events mentioned here you might've noticed, I'll be writing about those too, especially Don's very first mission, but I gotta finish that other chapter before I can post that one because otherwise that's just gonna get confusing as one leads to the other. In the mean time enjoy a bit of goofing off, Timothy and other things not going as planned.**


	18. Holiday celebrations

**Hello guys! Sadly I didn't get to finish that other chapter on time, but at least I finished the last final tests in school for this year! But I do have a little holiday special chapter I've had ready for a little while, so I hope you enjoy and happy holidays!**

* * *

The guys had apparently never celebrated Christmas before, so April had decided to introduce them to the holiday. It would be a few days after the real day, but she figured they wouldn't mind.

Mikey had excitedly agreed to play Santa and April had helped him custom fit a costume for him. Now they were nearly ready to start, but first they all had to finish decorating the lair in order to get 'the Christmas feel' April described, and as such they had all gathered under April as the coordinator. As she was the one who actually knew what they needed and how it should be done.

"Raph can help me get the Christmas tree in place and-"

"There is a tree?"

"Heh, yes there is. And Leo and Mikey can do the wall decorations, I brought a box with plenty from a big sale." April smiled and watched as the others started to move.

"And.. what should I do?" Donnie questioned as he moved in front of her, looking up at her expectantly, he wanted to get involved in this Christmas thing too. If April liked it this much it must be something nice.

"Oh uhm. Well…" April looked at her list, Don couldn't help but notice how her eyes darted from the list over to his legs and wheelchair, she was obviously trying to figure out what he could do. He would be lying if he said it didn't hurt a bit, even if he knew she didn't mean it that way.

"How about making gingerbread cookies~?"

"Gingerbread cookies?" He watched her with puzzlement.

"Yes, I'll show you, it's really easy!"

He was surprised when she bent down and whispered. "And the dough is really tasty, but only take a little and don't tell Mikey." She winked and gave him a smile before going to show him what to do.

* * *

"Easy, huh." Donnie sat alone in the kitchen by the table and watched the already done and bought gingerbread dough, his equipment containing ready patterns in some weird stick figures and what he presumed to be pigs. All he had to do was roll the dough out, press the patterns in and put them on the tray. April said she or Mikey could do the oven part later when they started with the food, and then he could decorate them with some icing and candy.

"But I don't want an easy assignment." He mumbled in disapproval. At least he could have been allowed to make the dough, instead of a ready one. Now the job was practically done for him.

Donnie eyed the blunt knife and the ready forms April had bought from a store, if they didn't dare give him something harder to do, he'd have to improvise and create his own project. Picking it up he tested the metal, it was rather soft and bendy.

Carefully he peaked out of the kitchen, the others were busy getting stuff up, Leo was holding a ladder while Mikey hung glittery stuff along the walls, and Raph was pulling on a tree while April coordinated and placed the stand. He carefully wheeled out and into the lab, getting his smaller tools from a box he then sneaked back.

"Sssh.." He hushed to Klunk who greeted him with a meow, who was currently sitting on a pillow in the media pit and watching the whole spectacle.

Once back in the kitchen he got to work, picking up a pair of pliers and starting to bend and 'fix' the given patterns. He was sure his brothers would appreciate the improvements.

When it was all said and done, after a few trials, he was happy with the result. He decided to not say anything and manage the oven himself. He nearly fell out of his chair, but just once, otherwise everything went alright, and he had to say he was pretty happy with the results. Maybe now she wouldn't underestimate him, sure he couldn't climb a ladder, but he could do more than press some figures into dough.

He also realised the dough actually was pretty tasty, but given the ingredients it was probably a good idea to not tell Mikey, he would just eat way too much of it and get a tummy ache.

He rolled out and placed the freshly baked cookies in a bowl on the table.

"There."

Mikey was drawn by the smell fairly quickly.

"Dude! You made cookies?"

"Kind of? Or I shaped and baked them at least."

"Aw there's turtle shell and rat cookies!" Mikey happily took a few and ate.

"Hey don't eat them all, I worked hard on those."

Looking around the decorations had really started to lighten up the lair, there were lights, a green tree, ribbons and glitter all around hanging off the ceiling and walls.

"Alright everyone! Time to decorate the tree!" April exclaimed, and they all helped out, at least this was something they all could do together. Donnie covered the middle while Raph and April got the bottom. Leo got the higher up part while Mikey claimed the top.

"Well, not bad for a tree, I guess."

They spent a short moment to look over their work, you could tell it wasn't a one-man job, but that was fine, it wasn't meant to be a perfect window display quality to it. The imperfections is what made it homey.

They finished the whole thing up by putting the presents underneath.

Mikey and April took the liberty of adding some spare glitter and lights to Donnie's wheelchair too, to make it more festive, Mikey argued.

As they started putting up and preparing the food Mikey started looking a little fidgety and glanced out the kitchen door from time to time.

"Uh by the way guys? When exactly do we open the presents?" Mikey suddenly asked as he placed the prepared food in the oven, sounding a little worried as he glanced towards the tree where they had placed them.

"Have some patience Mikey, we'll get to them after dinner."

"AFTER dinner?! But that's like... in hours! We gotta both cook AND eat it first!"

Leo smiled a little. "I'm sure you can wait a few hours to open your presents?"

"It's not that! Donne's and Raph's presents can't wait that long! Oh man…"

"Huh? Their presents can't.. wait..? Mikey that doesn't make any sense." Leo looked at his brother in puzzlement.

"Yea, sorry Leo I couldn't find one like that to you in time but, maybe next year. But dude, they seriously can't."

Leo raised an eye ridge. "One like what? Is this something that melts? I mean, we can put them in the fridge if-"

"Absolutely not!" Mikey darted out and put himself between Leo and the tree.

"Pleeeease? It's important, I totally didn't think it would be after dinner and.. pretty pleeeease?" He looked beggingly at them. The others glanced at April, she was the expert on this stuff.

"Huh, well…" April looked from Mikey to the others. "It's not really traditional but… you can if you want to I guess? A lot of people have different traditions. But-" Then she seemed to pause as she realised something and stared at Mikey.

"You didn't."

Mikey looked sheepishly back at her.

"Uh.. heheh.. weeeell.. I couldn't.. help myself and.. I might of.. kinda have?"

"You said it wasn't.. oh god." April facepalmed, and the rest of the brothers looked on in increased worry.

"Uh.. what exactly are we missing here?" Don asked in confusion, because there seemed to be some kind of inside thing going on between Mikey and April only they knew about.

"Yea. Okay guys, change of plans. And uh.. just so you know I had nothing to do with this and I specifically advised him not to."

Donnie and Raph exchanged concerned glances with each other, what had their little brother done now…?

* * *

A moment later Mikey came walking back in his fixed-up Santa suit as the others were settled around the couch by the tree. The others stared at him, he had a big white fake beard, and a big red hat and red coat with red shorts. He had also stuffed some pillows under the red coat to get a ridiculous big belly.

"HO HO HO! Do we have any nice kids here tonight~?" He said in a deepened voice and grinned wide.

April stifled a laugh, he'd really gone all out on the research.

"Uhm, Mikey. We're not exactly kids." Leo added hesitantly, not really sure what was supposed to happen or what they were doing.

"Mikey? Who's Mikey? I'm Santa! Uh. Santa claws!

"Clause." Donnie coughed.

Raph rolled his eyes and sighed.

Splinter smiled a little. "I'm sure there are."

"Great! Cause I got some presents for you bros! Uh I mean.. Ho ho..! I bring gifts! To you..!"

Raph tried really hard not to smirk at Mikey's slip up as he stumbled forward, not really seeing the ground as the pillows were in the way.

"Sorry Uh.. I'm just gonna… lose some weight! Ho ho.. ho." Mikey turned and struggled for a bit and dumped some of the pillows, then turned back around. At this point it was pretty hard not to find the situation funny.

"Alright! Santa's magic fitness trick, don't try that at home kids! Now.. the first gift I bring is for.." He picked the first box up and struggled to read the label.

"Uh Donnie your handwriting sucks." Mikey suddenly complained totally out of character.

"It does not!"

"Pft. Wait, let me help." April offered and put on her own pointy hat. "I'll be Santa's helper."

"Great!"

"Okay, so the first gift I bring is for.. Leonardo! Have you been a good boy this year~?"

"Uhm... yes..?" It was more of a question than an answer but Mikey proceeded regardless and handed the gift out. Leo awkwardly came forward and took it.

"Thanks Don.. Uh Mikey.. I mean Santa?" He awkwardly stepped back. Donnie and Raph couldn't quite contain their giggles.

Leo elbowed Raph and whispered. "Do we really have to do this Santa thing every year now?"

"It's only once a year, right?"

"Yea?"

"I can live with that." Watching Leo being that awkward? Worth it.

* * *

"You… sure I wanna open this Mikey..?" Raph looked sceptical, they'd all gotten their gifts, except Raph's was round and it had small holes at the top, as if something had stabbed it, or maybe there was something sharp inside..?

"Positive~" Mikey beamed as he put on his new hat with a puff on it and scarf. April had helped the guys out in some of the gifting ideas, most if it was homemade, they couldn't exactly go shopping like normal people. Well, April had helped Mikey out a bit but… She hadn't truly known what she was helping him buy, she had just picked it up for him.

"Uh.. Mikey?" Raph stared down with wide eyes as he opened the present. It was a glass bowl, and at the bottom sat a little tortoise and stared back up at him, chewing on a leaf.

"What the heck?"

"It's a turtle!"

"That's a tortoise." Don commented as he looked in surprise at Raph's.. new pet? Then he froze as realisation hit him and he looked down at the box in his hands, it had holes poked into it on the sides... _Oh no.._

"Please don't tell me.." He placed his head on the lid, and he was 99.8% sure he heard something. _Great.. just great._ What would he end up with now? He didn't have time for pets, he had projects and… Deciding to take the leap he carefully opened the box and peered inside, wondering what horrors Mikey had managed to get a hold on.

".. Huh." He looked down at a little bird, it looked kinda like a little chicken, but It was grey and black, and it wasn't as fat.

".. Is this a bird? Mikey did you just give me a BIRD?" He gaped and stared at it.

"Well yea? I though you could use some more company in that lab of yours, I asked around for a pet you could talk to that didn't need cuddling or would be in the way and the guys on the forum I found recommended birds."

Donnie stared at Mikey for a moment and then back down at the bird. "I'm pretty sure they meant a parrot, and this is definitely not a parrot."

"Oh. Well, it's still a bird, right? I think you should name it Pete~"

April was just as surprised and looked down at the little thing, it was, quite unexpected. "Why?"

"It was perfect with uh.. whatever the dude said it was."

"And that was?"

"Uh.. some bird name~"

"So you gave be a bird, and you don't even recall or know what kind of bird? Or how big it will be, or anything?" Donnie said sceptically as he took the little thing into his hand.

"Yup~"

"If you're gonna get me stuck taking care of a bird at least have the decency to allow me to name it." Don huffed and placed the little bird down in his lap, judging by its down it couldn't be more than a week or two at most, well… depending on species. At least there was an instruction manual and some food with it, courtesy of whoever Mikey got it from, he wasn't sure if he wanted to know how exactly he'd done it. The instructions weren't more specific than calling it 'the bird' though…

"How about Dinner? Cause I think that thing's gonna be Klunk's dinner sooner or later." Raph commented as he watched the little thing.

"Hey, be nice." April admonished.

"I am being realistic." He said as he looked at his new pet. "And I'm gonna name mine Spike." He experimentally tried to give him a leaf and couldn't help but smile a little as it took a bite out of it.

"Mikey this was seriously irresponsible of you, but uh.. what's done is done I guess so... thanks."

"Yes. Indeed it was, to take care of a pet is a big responsibility." Splinter added. "And to give that to your brothers without warning is careless. Should they accept it though, they will have to take care of them. However, should they not, you will have to be the responsible one, Michelangelo."

Mikey grimaced a little. "Sorry guys, I guess I should have asked if pets were okay."

"I don't want a pet!" Leo was quick to add, as Mikey had mentioned a 'next year' for him.

"Well..." Don looked at the little bird as it picked and tweeted, trying to find food. "I guess I can give it a try... But its name is going to be Aristotle. Not Dinner or Pete."

"Yes!" Mikey made a winning pose. "Best gifts or what?"

"Or what."

"Hey!"

The Christmas dinner was great though, something they'd love to redo, maybe tag down a bit on the gifts but otherwise it was a big success.

A few weeks later Donnie sat by his desk, comparing the image on the screen to his very pudgy bird sitting on his desk under the lamp, enjoying the heat and pruning her now grown feathers.

"…." He looked at the image again and then at the fat thing.

".. It's a partridge."

* * *

 **So, I took the liberty of deciding they'd never celebrated Christmas before until April showed up.**

 **Since in Japan Christmas isn't a thing and the only tradition I've heard of that they've picked up recently over there during X-mas is like eating at KFC or something. And Splinter being Japanese and all I figured he wouldn't be into some random foreign holiday. I mean you can pick up a countries holidays when you move to it, but given the circumstances they had and Splinter ending up spending most of his time living in the US in a sewer I just couldn't imagine him having the time or means to care to pick up something like that, especially when it's not something he's familiar with or nostalgic about.**

 **So April introduced it for them! I also changed the way Raph got Spike, not that they really told us how he got him in canon, at least I don't think they did..? And another pet for fun, because I love throwing in random and unexpected details when the opportunity is too good to pass up. And no one expects a Partridge.**

 **Happy holidays everyone!**


	19. Drabble: Aristotle

**Adding a short little bonus drabble! Cheers.**

* * *

Raph sighed as he brought his mug to his lips to drink, only to realise it was empty.

"Great." He put the mug down and was about to get up when he heard a pitter patter-like sound across the floor.

"?" Turning he saw the bird named Aristotle come running, he watched as the bird moved across the ground. It was almost amazing how fast it was moving, it was like a football with the feet paddling like crazy underneath it.

He couldn't help but roll over laughing as the bird got up the ramp and entered the lab. He was pretty glad he got Spike instead, he wasn't sure if his belly could handle having that bird.

Donnie sat sketching by is desk when he suddenly heard Raph burst out laughing.

"?" Glancing up he saw the reason why pretty quickly as Aristotle entered the lab and quickly padded along, going up the ramp he had built her to reach the desk. Where the bird comfortably nestled up in her nest Don had built her earlier.

"RAPH! Will you stop laughing at her? I know it looks funny, but it's not very nice! She gives you breakfast!" Don called through the lab door.

"That's a very tiny breakfast Don! And I can't help it! It's a football on sticks!"

Don sighed and petted his bird as she sat contently in her nest.

"Now don't you listen to Raph, you may be pudgy but you're not a football."

* * *

 **And if any one is interested to know what a real one looks like.. well Raph isn't far off.**


	20. Like three turtles do

**OMG school and my surprise internship is taking all my time currently. I've had this part of the chapter finished for a long time, but the other half is only half finished. So, since there's been like a month since I lasted updated I decided to split the chapter in half. That way you guys can read the finished part while I try to get the other part finished sometime inbetween all these crazy school tasks. Which might take a bit more time than I'd like, but it will be done!**

 **(We got like.. 2 weeks notice that we'd have internship. My school has zero foresight or planning skills. It's been a stressful month.)**

 **Also I'm starting to explore a bit on their mission issues and how they work as a 3-man team as opposed to 4. What do you do when the walking encyclopedia isn't actually walking with you?**

* * *

Donnie stretched his arms out a little and made himself comfortable in his chair as he watched his brothers jump over the turnstiles and out of the lair. He sighed. "Time to get to work."

After all, the best time to work undisturbed on projects was when his brothers were out for patrol or on a mission, the downside was he couldn't help but have a nagging feeling of worry, if something happened he couldn't be there to help. Sitting around waiting was never fun, but at least now they could call him and inform him of things, or ask if there was some information they needed.

And with the new headsets in place, it was easier, plus he could use the laptop or do other things at the same time. He kinda hoped they would call, so he could be part of the mission, but also he hoped they wouldn't because it might mean a life or death situation.

Leo sighed.

"Guys, let's focus here.." He saw how Mikey and Raph tumbled around while he tried to keep a lockout for Kraang. "Ninjas are supposed to be silent! You guys aren't exactly helping here!"

"Sorry Leo.." Mikey commented. "But Raph- Ow!" Mikey whined as Raph grabbed his finger and bent it. "Okay, okay..!"

"Ssssh!" Leo tried to shush them for the fifth time. Sometimes he wondered if he was working with kindergarteners. It sure felt like it.

"Ugh just-" He paused as he heard the van. "They're here."

"Finally." Raph cracked his neck and jumped down after letting Mikey go.

"No! Wait for- … .. my signal.." He watched as Raph jumped down and tackled one of the droids, shortly followed by Mikey. Why was his team comprised of 70% recklessness? He jumped down and joined the others in the fight. Luckily it had only been a few and was over in a mere moments.

"Okay, next time, some patience would be nice."

"What's the problem? We got them!"

"Yea, but we don't know what they were up to, or where they were going! This was just the delivery! We were supposed to follow them, not beat them up."

"Oh. Uh.. should we.. redo it?" Mikey suggested as he poked one of the droid heads.

"Look just, ugh.. Okay, they'll probably come back for this, we'll leave, make them think we think we won and then went home, THEN we follow them, no attacking. Got it?"

"No problem bro!" Mikey gave a thumbs up. Then they retreated around the corner.

"Aww more waiting.." Raph grumbled.

"Well if you had just waited for another few minutes we wouldn't be here right now."

"Heh, he's got a point there. Ow! Hey you don't have to hit me for it.." Mikey grumbled, Raph had one of those days..

"Hey.. you think Donnie would like one of those?"

"One of what?" Leo looked at where Mikey pointed. "One of the droids? Are you crazy? What if that thing wakes up and attacks?"

"Oh please, it's just a suit. You worry to much."

"No, I worry just the right amount, you worry too little." Leo argued and glared at Raph. Mikey sighed, it was just a question, a yes or no would have been fine.

They waited around until more Kraang showed up, after they'd cleaned up and taken the van they were on the move.

"Okay team, this time we follow them." Leo swiftly jumped across the roofs until they arrived at an alley close to the place the van had stopped by.

"Now, we move in silently, and wait for my signal, okay?" Leo whispered harshly.

"Yea yea, got it, let's do this!"

"Wait. What now?"

"We're moving in, silently."

"Got it." Mikey made a salute.

They climbed down and dashed across the street one at a time, slowly sneaking around the building.

"Wait."

They stopped in their tracks.

"I recognise this place, it's the one April and Donnie found, we were gonna check it out later." Raph pointed out.

"Oh. Well… great. Then we can check it out now instead and get confirmation on their findings." Leo smiled, this was actually going way better than planned already, well, if you dismissed some hiccups. They kept sneaking around the wall, except for the alien activity, the night seemed to be rather calm in this area.

Leo carefully stepped over a few boxes and paused when he saw a loose window. Perfect. He gave Raph and Mikey a signal and nodded his head towards the window. They nodded back.

After a few minutes they had all managed to get inside, the inside was a lot different from the outside.

"Wow okay, these are some funky looking corridors.

"Yea.. Okay, here is the plan, Mikey you'll come up from the left and cause a lot of noise, make something seem like it fell, while me and Raph sneak up from the other side and-"

"But why me? I always have to do the distraction…"

"Because.. you're good at it.. Aand.. we're.. busy doing the ambushing."

"But I can do ambushing too. Raph can distract, or you. Besides wouldn't it be easier if we took out the control panel so there wouldn't be any light instead?"

Raph and Leo stared at Mikey.

"What? It was on the map Donnie got for us on this place, remember?"

"How am I supposed to remember that entire thing? The blueprints are good yes, but it's impossible to remember everything!"

"Donnie could."

"Well yea, but I am not Donnie!"

"And my memory remembers it just fine! I know where the panel is, it's to the right side." Mikey grumpily pointed out.

"Well.. then there you go. Go do that instead, that's a distraction too."

"But I don't know how the panel works." Mikey whimpered, he really didn't want to do the whole distraction and they ambush routine AGAIN.

"Then call Donnie and ask, or just punch it, either way is fine. Now we do what I say." Leo said firmly before sneaking off to the left. Raph gave Mikey a dunk in the shoulder and followed Leo.

"… Great." Mikey said to himself and sneaked off to the right.

"Uuh, you sure it's this way Leo?" Raph said sceptically as they walked along the corridor.

"Positive, uh.." Leo stopped and looked at the dead end he was about to walk into, and turned towards the corridor he nearly passed by. "That it's this way."

"Right. Might wanna call Don and ask about that blue print." Raph commented annoyedly, he hated when Leo got like this, sometimes he was too overconfident and he didn't think they needed any sort of advice or directions. Things probably would have been different if Donnie had actually been able to be there, that way he could give advice whether they liked it or not.. He sighed as he followed along, then everything turned dark.

"Leo?"

"I think that was Mikey."

"Great, we can't see, and we don't know where we're going, fantastic."

"I'm working on it." Leo grumbled and turned on his T-phone.

"Oh yea that's real nice, now we're a walking spotlight in the dark, real ninja there Leo."

"Shut up. I said I'm working on it. Just.. just follow my lead and-" They heard noise and what sounded like lasers shooting.

"!" They quickly darted along the dark corridors, following the noise, until they came into the centre of the building. The lights were off, but you could still barely make out what was there, partly because the glowing substances, giving the area a soft glow of green and pink. And partly the windows, where some light from outside softly flowed in to mix with the rest. Flashes of light lit up the spaces where the sounds where coming from as laser guns where shot.

Mikey was screaming and jumping around in what looked like a poor lit factory, a factory of robot suits.

Leo and Raph quickly darted forwards, attacking the robots from behind as they passed them.

Mikey quickly turned when he heard the crash and saw his brothers. "Where were you guys?! I was about to turn into swiss cheese!"

"Calm down, we saved your ass okay? Besides it's Leo's fault we're late!"

"How is it MY fault? I looked at that map briefly like a week ago! I didn't think I wouldn't have a chance to review it again before going into this place!"

"Well you could have kept it in mind!"

"Guys! Uh, not really the time?" Mikey pointed towards the reinforcements that was coming down the corridor.

"So what's the plan fearless?"

"We destroy this place and go."

"Okay great! How are we doing that, exactly..?" Mikey looked around to see if there was a big red self-destruct button anywhere in their proximity they might have missed.

"Uh well. We hack and slash at everything that seems important!" Leo decided after a moment, and they proceeded to trash the places as good as they could. Mikey hit every possible panel and control switch with buttons he could find, while Raph and Leo stabbed and slashed at machineries, cut cables off and anything else they could find.

"Okay we gotta go now!" Leo called as the noise indicated they were just around the corner now. Quickly they darted towards where Leo and Raph had first come from, backtracking their way out of there.

As they sneaked out of the building they missed the fact that someone was observing them. The figure made a hand gesture and the ninjas who stood ready to attack backed down. Now they knew some areas they were moving in… 

* * *

_Back at the lair…_

"Guys what the heck?!" Donnie exclaimed as they came back from the mission, Mikey had multiple small wounds and cuts as well as burns from lasers all over him, while Raph and Leo only had minor nicks and cuts, clearly having come off nearly unscathed.

"I thought Mikey were putting out lights, not.. whatever this is?" He gestured towards their youngest brother. Mikey had called earlier about the panel, but other than that he hadn't heard a single thing during the entirety of their mission.

"They made me the decoy again." Mikey said almost accusingly and pointed at Leo and Raph, "and they were late in their ambush."

"Mikey.. I'm really sorry about that, but it wasn't like it was on purpose." Leo felt guilty now that he could properly see what Mikey looked like, he wasn't joking about the swiss cheese as much as Leo thought he had.

"We'll make sure it doesn't happen again, and check the map properly. Right Leo." Raph gave Leo a glare, and he glared back.

Donnie sighed and gestured for Mikey to follow him into the lab.

"Good thing we got the medical bay upgraded. You can sit here." He patted on the bed with clean sheets and wheeled towards the cabinet to get his medical kit.

"So how did it go out there?" He settled for asking about what happened while fixing up Mikey's wounds.

"Well… okay I guess? We found that Kraang base you and April mentioned, turned out it was like this whole evil robot suit factory." He sighed.

Don's interest perked up. "A robot factory?" That could be good, maybe he could use some of it… from what he understood the Kraang were very good at robotics. He sort of wished he could see one for himself. If only maybe not a live and shooting one perhaps. Their tech oriented equipment was giving his brothers some grief too though…

"We destroyed it though, so that's good, right?"

Donnie blinked, and smiled a little as he was pulled from his thoughts. "Yea, you did good." He patted Mikey and applied some disinfectant, and grimaced when Mikey yelped.

"Oops sorry, should have warned about that one, it stings a bit." As he put on some band aids he couldn't help but keep thinking about the possible robot parts.

"So.. how exactly did you destroy it?" He questioned, partly out of curiosity but also in the possible sense there might be something to salvage.

"Well, we punched the computers and machines and stuff, cut some wires and stabbed stuff." Mikey shrugged. Then looked questioningly at Donnie as he seemed to pause and just stare at him.

"Wait, you just 'slashed and stuff'? Without knowing anything or what it was? Didn't you use the information I gave you about the building..?"

"I did remember the blueprint you showed last week!" Mikey pointed out. "But uh.. yea no. We ran out of time. Besides Leo didn't think it was that place, so he left the blueprint at home.."

Don groaned slightly, all that work, for nothing.

"You guys do realise they are just going to repair it and keep going right..?" He pointed out. "You have probably just stalled them a few weeks, or however long that repair is going to take."

"Then.. how would you do it?"

"Oh, well…" Donnie fiddled a little with his fingers, thinking the question over, it wasn't something he'd put any thought into, considering he wasn't coming with. He'd just gotten all the info he could for his brothers… But when Mikey put it like that… what would he seriously do? If he could actually go there and shut down an entire alien factory? A scary thought…

"I would.. I would install a virus in their computer, that would destroy the programming from within, making it hard to restore anything.. and.. bombs. I would plant bombs. Bring it down in a controlled fashion, so they wouldn't be able to use the place again. That way they would have to find a new place, which would slow them down even more."

Mikey looked at Donnie for a moment. "D that is the best idea ever! Leo should really have you as an advisor or a second in command or something! You'd be awesome at it I bet, coming up with plans and strategy and stuff to solve things. You should totally go for it!"

Donnie blushed. "Thanks Mikey.. but it's probably not a good idea, I mean, I can't.." He glanced down at his feet. ".. I'm the doctor, I can give advice but.. I can't actually go out there." Then an idea struck him.

"At least.. not in person perhaps…"

Mikey watched as Donnie half mumbled to himself, starting off at his desk, looked like he just got some sort of idea. That was probably his exit cue. "Well! Thanks for the repairs! I feel good as new!" He stated cheerfully and jumped off the bed.

"I'm gonna tell the guys what you said, see ya later D!" He said and rushed out of the lab, because he could already hear a bickering between Leo and Raph escalating, and he had to stop it and calm things down before it got out of hand.

* * *

Before he could make it all the way though, April popped up from the turnstiles.

"Guys! I found this awesome-" She stopped in her tracks, staring at Leo and Raph, who had frozen upon her arrival.

"Uh.. Is this a bad time? Should I come back in thirty?"

"Whaaat? No! No.. we're uh.. fine." Leo stated and took a step away from Raph, who he had been so close to punching.

"We're just… having a disagreement. Which can wait."

Raph answered with a shrug and folded his arms as he gave Leo an angry stare, which Leo tried to ignore.

Mikey sighed in relief, they didn't fight that often, but sometimes it tipped over, especially if things didn't work out the way they had wanted to, or something went wrong. He guessed that in this case the main reason was them getting lost and him getting hurt as a result.

Raph flopped down on the couch and said nothing, probably because April was there..

"Okay.." April observed them for a moment, making sure things had calmed down before she continued.

"Anyway, so I found this awesome place, and I think you can come too!" She exclaimed in excitement.

"Wait what?"

"Yea, it's an activity even you can do, I remembered how Mikey mentioned wanting to eat out and- wow what happened to you Mikey?" April paused and assessed her injured friend.

"Oh a scruff is all, don't worry about it, D fixed me~ So what's this totally awesome place you're on about?"

"A place to go out and eat!" She said excitedly, which was at first met with some sceptism.

After some debate they all agreed they'd go, and bring Donnie something afterwards. They'd tell him about it later, as he seemed busy in the lab, and they probably couldn't bring him anyway. Mostly because Leo and Splinter was against the idea since they could run into trouble.

* * *

Donnie was mildly surprised when he exited the lab and found the lair nearly abandoned.

"Huh." He carefully looked around. "Guess whatever it was that caused them to go off must have been important..." He scratched his chin and decided to go back to his project, he could tell them about his idea later he supposed.

* * *

 **So as you might notice Leo doesn't really include Donnie in missions much, he gives him tasks, or asks if he can find out certain things or build stuff. But he really tries to keep him out of it, which Raph doesn't quite approve, Mikey on the other hand thinks there is a compromise they can make here and they're missing the possibilities. Don's just not sure about the whole thing, but a part of him does want to get more involved than he currently is, and he is starting to try get more included in that part of their "family business" than just being their patch up doctor, mostly thanks to Mikey and his optimistic attitude. Haha.**


	21. Like Three Turtles Do Part 2

**Finally! This chapter took forever, it was actually supposed to be part of the last chapter, but it would have been awfully long and you'd have had to wait forever to read it. But now here it is! Part 2! I went over this so many times, I didn't want it to feel rushed but I just couldn't seem to get it right. I'm not super happy about some of the parts in the chapter. But I'll just admit defeat and declare it done, I'll try do better on future chapters and try figure out how to get it more balanced and dynamic I guess. Now enjoy the very belated chapter! Which might or might not have errors in it. xD**

 **Also, I wanna give a big thank you for all the reviews and faves 3 It means the world!**

* * *

April walked along the road and sighed as the guys took their sweet time. They'd argued they didn't want to be seen, but did they have to be this slow?

"And you're absolutely sure about this?" Raph questioned.

"Positive! The guy is blind, we'll be fine. We can eat there without a problem."

"Sweet! Ow!"

"I mean… sweet for us." Mikey corrected as Raph gave him a glare. Insulting disabled people was definitely the last thing they should probably be doing, intentional or not.

When they arrived there was however a big ruckus going on.

"Guys! Someone's wreaking the place!" Mikey exclaimed, and rushed forward. The others reacted and followed.

As they stomped through the doors, the guys in the restaurant stopped their vandalism and stared.

"Dude.. there really are giant turtles!" One of them shouted and stared at them. Mikey practically beamed.

"Dudes! We're famous! This is awesome!"

Leo sighed. "Ninjas aren't supposed to be famous… Stop what you're doing villains!" He shouted at them.

"…" The guy just laughed, the other one hit him and yelled. "Get them!"

Then the fight was all out. April ducked and crawled along, trying to find Murakami as the turtles fought the intruders. Upon finding him she made sure he was okay.

"I think Murakami is okay!" She said after a moment and poked her head up, finding Mikey trying to taste some soup with two guys trying to jump him, she quickly threw the nearest object.

Mikey barely noticed, until one of the guys behind him was hit. "Oh! Thanks April!" He gave her a thumbs-up after kneeing the other guy, and she smiled back before taking cover again.

* * *

The fight was rather short, it took some time since there was more of them, but compared to the turtles they were rather weak. Leo stopped and glared at the guy he had been hitting.

"Get out of here and never come back." He threatened, the guy's cocky attitude annoyed him, but he didn't exactly feel like beating the thug unconscious when he himself was clearly the better fighter. That guy would just get unnecessarily hurt, if they kept going.

Murakami was very grateful for their rescue, and they ended up eating a very delicious meal as thanks. Mikey couldn't stop smiling.

"Wow Mr. Murakami this is like... the best meal I've ever had! You're like a food ninja!"

"So… how much is it..?" Leo asked.

"Oh no, it is for free." Murakami responded and smiled.

"You sure?" April asked.

Murakami smiled. "Of course, you saved my life, it is the least I can do."

They happily ate their meal before leaving and thanking Murakami for the delicious meal. Not quite the night out April had intended, but it was still a restaurant visit, sort of. Maybe normal just wasn't possible for these guys…

* * *

"What the fuck Leo?!" Raph grabbed him after they had splitted up with April and was nearly home. "Why did you let 'em go?"

"They had enough, we were clearly better than them."

"They beat up a blind guy! There is no enough! Guys like that would beat up guys like Donnie without hesitation, they deserve all the beating they can get!"

"But they didn't beat Donnie up." Leo raised an eye ridge.

"No, I'm just saying. They're jerks! They deserve to be treated like jerks!" Raph said angrily as they jumped the turnstiles.

Leo sighed. "Look, if we see them again, we'll make sure to remind them, in case they get other ideas."

"See who?" Donnie asked curiously, looking up from where he was sitting. The others had been rather loud and it was hard to miss their arrival.

"Oh. Donnie!" Leo said in surprise. "You're uhm.. not in your lab?"

"No, no I'm not. I don't live there, you know." He pointed out.

"No, of course not. Just... surprised to find you out here."

"So, who are these guys and what are you going to remind them of?"

"Just.. some guys.." Raph scratched his neck. As Donnie gave him a look. That's when Mikey decided to join the conversation.

"We were going to this restaurant April found! But then there were these guys there beating up the owner, so we kicked their sorry asses and bam! Free meal!"

"Oh. You didn't say anything about going to a restaurant earlier, in fact you didn't even say you were leaving."

"Oh..! Right.. uh.. Sorry we were going to but.. then you seemed busy. Don't worry Dee, we.. uh.. oh shit we didn't bring any, did we?" Mikey halted in his apology, realising his main bargaining tool was in fact, something they forgot to bring back.

"Okay now that's off the table, but we totally meant to bring you some grub back as a sorry for the just going off thing.. but… we got distracted... Next time?" Mikey forced a smile and tried to make the best of the situation.

"Uh-huh." Don sighed a little. "I'm not Splinter you know. But thanks for the thought. So uh.. you going to find these thugs?"

"Not right now but.. Uh.." Leo realised something very important.

"Great. We don't actually know how to find them." He realised. He sighed as Raph gave him a dunk.

"Way to go Leo! Now we have to ask around and find them!"

"You do realise you're not gonna be able to actually go ask around, right?" Don commented. "Though you could look around to see if they show up somewhere I guess.. but New York is a big place."

"Oh! Idea!" Mikey suddenly said. "We could ask April to go ask for us!"

"Not.. a bad idea, I guess? I mean, it could go faster that way." Leo said hesitantly, thinking the possibilities over. It did sound better than not knowing where to really start…

"I'm warning you, you better guard her with your life if she agrees." Don pointed out in a warning tone at them, as he himself couldn't be there to protect their friend.

* * *

Turns out April was absolutely down for playing detective and quite enthusiastic about trying to find them. It did take some time, but April did eventually find out they're called the Purple Dragons, and they were apparently quite known for terrorising the area. After finding their hideout Leo started making a plan of attack.

"Okay, we go in, give them the message, make sure they got it, and then we're out. Nothing more. Got it?" Leo asks, hoping they're listening this time.

"Yea yea, we got it, it's not complicated okay?" Raph dismisses. Leo sighs a bit, but nods and jumps down with his two brothers to crash the Dragon's party. Things does not however go as planned, they're not exactly walking in to what they were expecting.

They freeze.

"Uh guys? I think stuff got more complicated!" Mikey says as he stares at the skinny guy and Bradford. "It's Bradford and.. that other guy!"

"What are THEY doing here?!"

"I'm NOT 'the other guy', my name's Xever!" Xever hisses back and draws a knife.

"Yea? And we don't care!" Raph retorts, Sai's up and ready for a fight. In his opinion this doesn't really change the plan, they were going to beat up the dragons, now two more just joined that list.

Leonardo narrowly avoids a knife stabbed to his face.

While his brothers were dealing with the Purple Dragons Donnie took the time to finish his latest invention. He hoped it would help upgrade their communications. While the T-phones were great they could really use a better upgrade for tricky missions. He'd wanted to make a sort of radio, but for greater distance and more convenient shapes for combat and missions.

He hummed a tune as he worked with a tiny screwdriver on a very small piece of electronic.

Raph flipped backwards to avoid Xever's foot flying in the air, the guy was a surprisingly good fighter and he really liked to fight with his feet.

Mikey found himself on a one on one with Bradford, which was a bit trickier than he'd like, as the purple dragons were in the fight as well, while they weren't a problem by themselves, Bradford certainly was. And it was hard to guard so many angles like this.

"Guys?" Mikey called as he dodged another attack, trying to not get out maneuverer or caught in a corner.

Leo watched as Mikey struggled on his own, but he couldn't just ditch Raph either, and Xever was literally knocking them around at this point. He looked around and decided this just wasn't an ideal situation for them.

"Guys! Retreat!" He called.

"What?!"

"Not now Raph! Just do as I say!" He called.

Mikey was all too happy to comply and swiftly jumped backwards, following his brothers up on the beams. Raph on the other hand was not, he glared down at Xever, who at this point was yelling after them to come back and face him. It was hard to take being called a coward.

"How'd it go?" Donnie wheels out of his lab as he heard them come back, mostly because Raph went straight in and punched his bag. ".. Not well?"

"Leo decide we should just flee, like cowards!" Raph angrily said as he punched the bag again.

"Huh? Why..?" Donnie looked on in confusion.

"Well.. it wasn't like we knew the foot would be there!" Leo argued. "Last time we had a hard time beating those guys, I just thought it wasn't a good idea to fight them and the Purple Dragons at the same time!"

"Well, now they think we're cowards!" Raph retorted.

Mikey made a grimace, he hated when Raph and Leo argued, which was happening at an increasing rate now since they'd started making enemies and going out on these missions.

"Guys… Let's just not? It WAS kinda hard, and I had to face braddy and two other dudes. It wasn't exactly easy."

Raph sighed. "Okay, fine. So next time, I'll take one of 'em on my own, and you guys can team up. So we don't have to run away."

"Hey, don't blame Mikey for it."

"I'm not! I'm just saying, I can handle it!"

Don stared as Leo and Raph had a glaring contest, he was about to interrupt when his phone was ringing.

"Oh hi April~!"

Don's smile faded fast as April talked. "Guys! … GUYS! April says this Murakami guy from the restaurant has been kidnapped!" He presumed they knew who he was.

"What?! We have to save him!" Mikey called. The news had at least made Raph and Leo stop in their tracks.

"Let's go meet up with April and see where he is at, it could be the purple dragons again."

"Or a trap." Don suggested.

"Yea, or a trap." Leo commented before starting to walk.

"Wait." Don stopped him. "I made these.. so you don't have to dial me up, just… push the button to talk to any of us, should be easy to use in fights or on missions. Rather than calling." He explained.

"Oh.. thanks?" Leo watched as Donnie attached the thing around his neck after tugging him down to his level, then one on Mikey and Raph.

"Oh neat!" They all heard in an echo as Mikey pushed the button and talked.

"Yea, like that."

After meeting up with April outside the restaurant she pointed out the note that was obviously left with them in mind.

"They got him, they want to meet at the factory." Leo stated as he teared it down and read it.

"Then we do, and we beat 'em down!"

"Sounds good!"

"Wait we need a plan guys. We can't just go in."

"Okaaay.. So.. what is it."

"We're... gonna show them we can cross lines to!" Leo said after some thought, smiling. This time, he felt like it wasn't so difficult to figure out a course of action, it wasn't the Kraang, after all. No weird technology to take into account.

"Yes!" Raph was absolutely thrilled. Finally, they'd make those guys pay.

* * *

Mikey giggled a little as they trapped Bradford in a trashcan. The plan was simple, they'd take one of theirs, threaten them and do a trade, Murikami for Bradford.

"I'm loving this." Raph said as he and Mikey started rolling Bradford along. As an after though, he reminded himself to update with Donnie what was going on.

"Hey, just checking in, we've kidnapped one of the bad guys, I'll call you back later." He heard Donnie respond.

"What? Kidnapped?! What are you guys doing exactly?" He answered, sounding a bit worried. He didn't reply, but he could feel Leo's stare at him.

"This is why we don't involve him so much, you're just worrying him." He said pointedly before they had to stop and hoist the trashcan up, they'd arrived. Raph really wanted to say some not so pretty things to Leo, but there was no more time for talking.

The foot and some dragons were waiting on the roof for them to show up.

Leo stepped forward and pointed his blade towards Xever and the other goons that was there.

"Release him!"

"Or what? There's been a change of plans turtles... Heh, drop your weapons or we cut the rope." Xever threatened, taking his knife and making a little cut at the thick rope that held Murakami far above the ground.

Mikey looked on a little nervously.

"Well there's been another change of plans! Raph!"

Raph grinned and removed the trashcan, grabbing the tied and gagged Bradford and holding him still.

"You give us Murikami or we toss him!"

"So? Do it. He's not my friend." Xever scoffed and smiled as he rolled his knife around with his fingers.

".. What?" Leo blinked, a bit stunned. "He's not?" He looked over at Bradford.

"No." Their enemy said casually, Bradford made a series of muffled protests and squirmed in Raph's grip.

"I'm warning you, we'll toss him."

"I said do it." Xever simply replied.

Raph and Leo spent a few seconds staring at each other, not sure how to proceed now that their bargaining chip turned out to be useless…

"Shit.." Raph sighed and dumped Bradford in front of him.

"Heh." Xever smiled, then he and the ninjas attacked.

Raph, Leo and Mikey instantly responded, weapons out and tossed themselves into combat, one of the ninjas snuck up and freed Bradford in the thick of it.

"What is wrong with you?!" Bradford said angrily at Xever once he was free. "I could have been tossed and died!"

"So? We're not friends. Besides they didn't." He replied and went to attack the turtle with Sai's that was currently fighting off four footsoldiers.

* * *

Donnie felt like he might start picking up on biting his nails. He'd heard a brief explanation of what was going on from Raph, then he'd talked a bit to Mikey. But after that they weren't responding. Which probably meant there was combat. He really hoped they would be okay.

"Oh please let them make it." He mumbled, wishing his camera project was done, he could really use some video feedback. That would really help keeping tabs on them, and know what was going on. Besides he'd feel more included, sometimes he had this nagging feeling Leo wasn't really counting him as a member of the team, the family yes, but not the team, kinda like Splinter. Also, Leo didn't really seem all that happy to include him in everything team related either and he hated it. It made him feel inadequate, also he was pretty sure there was more he could do for them if he really was kept up to date with everything going on.

* * *

Suddenly there was a sound from Mikey, but it was cut off. Possibly because he couldn't keep his finger on the button.

"What is going on?" This was clearly not calming his nerves the way he thought it would.

Mikey really tried to update Don, cause he knew he'd be worried, but he was forced to release the button to block an incoming attack. As they fought he heard a gasp, glancing to the side he realised Murakami was hanging a bit lower.

".. The rope! Raph, Leo..!" he called as he kicked the footninja in the stomach and turned. He started dashing his way to the chef, he just hoped he would make it on time. The others looked towards Mikey's direction and realised what was going on, they had however no possibility to break away and had to leave the rescue to Mikey while they tried holding off the enemy. Things weren't looking good though.

Raph watched as Mikey dove for Murakami, disappearing over the edge.

"MIKEY!"

he tried to get to the edge, to make sure Mikey was okay, but the enemy was blocking his way. The distraction caused Raph to be hit in the side with one of Xever's feet, and Bradford gave him a good right arm in the face.

Raph went down as he gasped for breath, he was really starting to feel the effects of the fight now, and they were pretty beat up, even if they had managed to take down a lot of the enemies. But they were only two against a whole group. Leo's eyes widened as the katana was knocked away from his hands, getting a full hit in the chest he flew through the air and landed right onto Raph who had been knocked down previously.

Xever laughed. "See? I knew this would work, now, let me show you how to fillet a turtle." He skilfully shifted his knife around in his hands. That's when Bradford decided this was a good time to bicker again. He sighed and groaned at his stupid companion, heatedly arguing back.

Leo was pretty sure this was it, unless Mikey could make it back in time, where was Mikey? They'd taken a real beating and were pretty bruised up now. Raph spit out some blood as he tried to get up, Leo wasn't sure what to do, he had no weapon and-

Suddenly one of his katanas came flying through the air and landed in front of him, he stared at it and then back up where it came from, and spotted the Purple Dragon he'd spared. He smiled, and grabbed the sword.

"Let's finish this." He quickly jumped in behind them, where a water tower was placed, he'd spotted it as he had landed on Raph, and sliced through it. The flood of water caused the bad guys to back up as they were swept away over the roof.

Leo laughed a little. "That was a bit too close huh? .. Mikey..!"

They both got up and hurried over to the edge as fast as their injuries would allow. They might only have a bit of time. Only to exhale in relief as they saw Mikey placing Murakami down by the street, upon spotting his brothers Mikey called out.

"You guys alright?"

Raph gave a tired thumbs-up and Mikey smiled back.

* * *

Don tapped his fingers as he waited for the others, he was really growing tired of this routine, at least he knew they weren't so injured that any of them needed emergency care. Which was nice. In fact, they'd said they were fine and probably didn't need any care at all.

"hey guys you-" Don paused as he stared at them.

"WHAT?! What did you mean by 'we're fine'?! You're not fine at all!" Don practically shouted at them. They were bruised up, they had cuts and it looked like they'd been in a proper brawl with a real beat down. This was nowhere near the description they'd given him over the com.

"Donnie, we're fine, really. Nothing's broken and we all got home fi-"

"That is NOT fine!" He interrupted Leo. "I'm the doctor! I decide what's fine! This is not it! Everyone. Lab. NOW!" He pointed and watched as his brothers marched away, not too happy about the current turn of events. Don swore he could see one of them trying to hide a limp.

"I'm gonna have to make them a diagram to show what level counts as 'fine'…" He grumbled as he rolled into the sickbay section of the lab to get stuff he would need. He had a lot of cleaning and patching up to do to make sure they didn't get any serious infections. Even a small cut down in the sewers could become a major problem if left alone without proper care.

Splinter dropped by as he felt his assistance might be needed and helped get some things from the kitchen, those bruises were in some desperate need of ointment and ice.

"How could you think this is okay?" He asked rhetorically as he put some ice on Mikey's shoulder after using a lot of peroxide on Raph, not the best option, but as he was a mutant the healing rate wouldn't be affected to a degree where it would be noticeable. At least to human standards. Besides it was hard to get anything better as peroxide was easy to come by.

As Mikey sat there he was stiff as a board.

"Heh.. guess we're just kinda... starting to get used to getting some scratches here and there." Mikey said nervously. "I'm not.. I don't need any injections… Do I?"

"No, you can relax." Don said, and Mikey visible deflated and relaxed.

"Oh thank shell! I love you man!" He exclaimed and pulled Donnie's head into a quick hug.

" Heh.. Augh! Mikey! I get it.. but I'm working right now!" Don complained, but could help but give a slight smile, it wasn't THAT often he used needles.

"Oh right! We actually brought you food this time! It's really delicious!" He said excitedly as he let go.

Don smiled. "Thanks Mikey, aaaand we're done."

"Yes!" Mikey happily jumped off the bed as Leo stood in line to silently take his place.

Don started working is way up from Leo's bruised ankle as the silence went on, Leo didn't really seem to be all there. He wondered what Leo was really thinking about, but decided against asking. Most of the time he would just brush him off anyway, especially lately. He wasn't quite sure why, but maybe it was just the pressure and being busy with the missions and increasing list of enemies. Donnie wasn't even sure he was aware of how exactly they were actually fairing against them. He had a rough idea, from all the talk and Mikey. But Leo wouldn't fill him in on any details or let him join in to talk about his plans or ideas. Or anything that was going through his head really.

"There, all done."

Leo nodded, went up and left with a small thank you. Apparently, he wasn't going to talk about what was on his mind anytime soon.

Don watched him go and sighed, since when did they stop talking about everything?

* * *

At least dinner was as usual, with the exception of a rather odd takeaway.

"Pizza gyoza..?" Don stared sceptically at the food lined up on his plate.

Mikey grabbed Don by the shoulders and pressed in close while smiling. "Trust me bro, it is dee-liciousss!"

"Okay fine, fine, I'll try it! Stop squashing me or you'll cause the wheelchair to topple over."

Mikey grinned wide as he watched Donatello's expression change as he tasted the food. "Right~?" He gave Don a wide smile.

* * *

Leo smiled a little as he watched his brothers. He'd finished his food early and decided to do some meditation, and… perhaps ask Splinter for some advice, he felt like he could really use some right now.

Leo carefully placed himself down on the mat, deciding to start with some breathing exercises, blocking out the dulled chatter sipping out from the kitchen.

Before he knew it the world around him disappeared and he fell into a meditative state. He tried to go through his emotions... he felt… unsure, insecure about the future... frustrated… it felt like a tangle he wasn't quite sure how to solve. He tried to think about the past missions, the problems. What went well, what went... less well, or bad. Trying to find the source of the issue.

Before he knew it, he'd been in there for three hours, he opened his eyes and sighed. He wasn't sure he could solve this on his own.

"Problems, son?"

Leo stiffened, then relaxed, realising Splinter had joined him at some point without him noticing.

"… Well.. I suppose. I just… There is something I can't seem to figure out."

"You are always welcome to seek my advice, or your brother's" Splinter commented.

Leo paused for a second, not really sure what to make of the last part, but he replied politely none the less. "Thank you, sensei."

Leo pondered where to begin, while Splinter waited patiently.

"When… we faced the Foot and the dragons today, everything sort of worked out. Sure, it wasn't entirely as planned, we faced problems… but we got around them. But with that Kraang mission the other day… it felt like the opposite, it was an uphill battle and it didn't really feel like we succeeded properly."

Splinter nodded. "They're quite different enemies."

"Right. I guess… that's why the same tactics doesn't work. But I'm just not sure how to… get around it. I mean, we can't just leave the Kraang be because it's hard to deal with them."

"No, that would indeed be unwise. Perhaps you should try think about them differently, they are not the foot, therefore, you shouldn't treat them as such."

Leo nodded, of course, he'd figured they needed to think about this differently… he just wasn't sure how he, Mikey and Raph could as a team make that happen.

"How did you know what choice to make?"

"What do you mean?" Splinter looked at Leo curiously.

"I mean, picking me as leader."

"I didn't. I simply picked you because you asked. It is up to you to become a leader. It is not something you are straight away."

"Oh. Master Splinter.. I'm just.. not sure I'm the right fit. I mean, I guess both Mikey and Raph would struggle too but..." In fact he had a hard time seeing either of them as leaders and making it work…

"How so?" Splinter asked out of curiosity. He could feel his eldest's son's uncertainty about the topic.

"I mean.. Raph is… reckless and Mikey is… Mikey. But I'm not sure I'm so great either…" Leo sighed

"And why is that?" Splinter asked, looking curiously upon Leonardo as he struggled to find the right words. It wasn't lost upon him that Leonardo didn't seem to think of Donatello as part of the team, or an option as leader. He stroked his beard as Leo seemed to struggle with his words, he wondered when he'd done that assumption, he hadn't spent a lot of his time with his son's daily activities or missions, so he hadn't actually noticed this particular direction their team dynamic had taken. Practice and reality was quite different after all.

He decided not to intervene yet, it would be best if they figured it out together on their own, though he was prepared to do some parental intervention if things didn't seem to get solved in time. After all, they had deadly enemies and sometimes letting them work it out completely on their own wasn't always a viable luxury.

"It's just... I feel like I can't lead the team properly, there is so much responsibility and... they don't really listen."

"Ah. So you think you're lacking in respect? Have you shown them the same respect back?"

"Huh? Well I... I'm the leader, they should respect me and listen! I mean, that's what's being a leader is about?" Leo felt slightly frustrated as he talked about some of his issues. "I feel like I'm herding cats most of the time, and then there is… I just can't seem to pull it together in certain.. well.. mostly Kraang related missions, there's just too much to deal with and… I feel stuck in a loop."

Splinter sighed, his pupil had indeed identified some of his problems, but he clearly lacked some insight and knowledge about how to approach them, but that was why he was there, to guide him through it. He twitched his nose slightly.

"Leonardo, respect is something that is earned, it is something you must build together with your brothers, as a team. It is not something you can simply demand of them. You need to respect them, if they are to respect you." Then he gave a slight smile.

"As for your loop, I suggest you talk to your brothers, I'm sure they can give you some new perspectives. Communication can be the difference between life and death, do not dismiss it."

"Hai, sensei." Leo was about to get up, thinking their talk was over, when Splinter gave him a smile he couldn't quite interpret.

"I believe you should focus more on what your team is capable of, rather than what they can't do. Now I shall retire for the evening." He announced, he slowly rose up and walked off towards his room.

Leo nodded and walked out of the dojo, as he did, he felt slightly unsure. The respect made sense, but at the same time… respecting Raph and Mikey seemed like a challenge in and of itself… He sighed, this wasn't going to be one of those easy things, was it?

He shook his head, if he was going to do this, if he wanted to become a good leader, he just had to pull it off, somehow. Maybe talking to them was a good start? It was hard to build something with someone when… they weren't around. That made sense, maybe some team building exercises...? Focusing on what they were good at and doing some adjustments… He smiled to himself. "I got this."

"Got what?"

The sound of Raph's voice stopped him. "Oh, hello Raph."

"You seem to be in a good mood."

"Well, actually I am, I got some good advice."

"Oh great." Raph said rather sarcastically. "Some more spiritual mumbo jumbo. I'm sure that'll keep everything peaceful and perfect."

Leo gave Raph a glare, about to retort, when he remembered what Splinter had said about respect. If he didn't listen to Raph, Raph wouldn't listen to him… He took a deep breath.

"Well… It's not mumbo jumbo, just.. teamwork advice. Actually. Doesn't mean the bad guys don't need a good old beat down, am I right?" He tried a confident smile with his little jab, sort of like Raph would do sometimes.

"…." Raph stared at him. That was literally the first time he'd seen Leo act like that, and not try to justify their violence into some spiritual or justice hero-bullshit and just straight out say they could use a pummelling.

"….."

"….." Leo stared back at Raph, not really sure what to do about the shocked reaction. And the silence was getting awkward as it dragged on. He took a few slow steps back.

"Sooo… I… should probably go have a talk with Mike." Leo stated after a few very long seconds. Raph seemed to snap out of his confusion.

"Yea.. Uh yea, good idea. I'll uh, check on Don. Make sure all the stuff is in place… and... stuff."

They were both relieved to get out of the weird situation when they left in opposite directions, Raph was quite confused by Leonardo's behaviour, and Leo made a note to listen to Raph, not talk like Raph, or more like attempt to. That was just cringeworthy.

* * *

Meanwhile in a rather gloomy but subtly decorative building, a brief meeting was taking place. The structure itself blended in along the neighbourhood, seemingly rather normal. It reminded of a church, if it weren't for the odd-looking guards dressed in black standing around.

Bradford winced as their master's disapproving eyes fell upon them.

"I am not pleased. Why is that?"

They grimaced, neither really wanted to reply. Bradford felt the Shredder's eyes upon him and swallowed down a shudder.

"Because we failed you, master. I promise it won't happen again."

"No, it won't. I've given you plenty of chances. It seems, if I want something done, I'm going to have to do it myself." The Shredder slowly rose from his throne and walked down. Bradford and Xever bowed down and held still. Not daring to speak up to anger him further, they silently agreed on a truce and to go along with whatever their master had in mind.

"This time, you will not fail me." He unsheathed his blades and glared down at them.

It looked like he was going to have to deal with these reptilian creatures himself.

* * *

Leo held his breath as he stood outside Mikey's room, there was one conclusion he had drawn upon his meditation, he really needed to apologise to Mikey.

He knocked on Mikey's door, Leo heard a soft come in and he slowly opened the door. After a brief hesitation he stepped inside.

"Hey Mikey."

"Oh, hello Leo. Finally got out of the dojo?" Mikey said as he lowered the comic he'd been reading.

"Hah well.. yea…" Leo scratched his neck.

"So what's up?"

"Look, I just.. what I wanted to say was... I'm sorry about earlier the other day. I… I shouldn't repeat the same tactics just cause I feel stressed… It's not how a leader should act and… I know being predictable is what we shouldn't be. And.. from now on we'll take turns with the distraction when we need one." Leo attempted a small smile.

"I only sent you to do it because I thought it would be safer, as... a leader, and your older brother, I'm worried about your safety above all else. I guess.. I took it a bit too far.." He hesitated a moment as he watched Mikey stare at him, Leo couldn't quite make out what he was thinking. He swallowed and willed himself to continue.

"I know this apology is way overdue… And.. I guess I realised I was wrong, it's not always the safest job. No job in this can truly be safe, so…" His eyes widened and he paused as Mikey got up and gave him a squeezing hug.

"Aww thanks bro! I knew you liked me!" Mikey happily hugged him as Leo tried to squirm a bit.

"A bit... too tight, Mikey." He managed to get out, and Mikey relaxed the hug a bit.

"Sorry bro!"

"No problem…" He managed a small smile and patted Mikey's head.

As he released him Mikey seemed to look him over, as if thinking about something, Leo waited to see if he would say anything, and he did. It wasn't quite what he expected though, Mikey was seldom the serious one.

"Though... you usually isolate yourself and come up with all the plans, you should totally discuss more often with us, you always look so pressured. I think you should totally consult Donnie about strategy by the way, he may not have hands on experience, but he sure has a lot of ideas. I'm sure you two would be unstoppable!" Mikey commented.

"Donnie?" Leo looked hesitant. "I don't know about that Mikey, he-"

"Look dude, I know you don't like to involve him, but these Kraang dudes are seriously hard to fight, and Donnie knows a lot about tech, I think you should at least let him help with ideas and stuff more."

"I know but… I don't want to involve him in this, if he gets involved, if he gets injured… He can't defend himself like we can. I just… I couldn't do that to him."

"I get what you mean but... Donnie's all.. patching us up and making us stuff. My guts tells me it'd be wrong to try make him stay out of it, ya know? Besides, what if we need like a big doomsday device to get rid of the aliens? Like hey D, can you make this thing, no worries you know, we're just gonna do a bit of gardening! Yea like that would go across well."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure we're NOT gonna need a doomsday device Mikey."

"Maybe, but I'm just saying! It's better if he knows, for all of us, besides... if it were me, I'd feel excluded and left behind." Mikey gave Leo a sad look.

"I'm not saying we'll take him with us... just.. talk with him more about it. He wants to, ya know? Please?" Mikey gave Leo his puppy dog eyes.

Leo grimaced as he felt his will bend slightly at the sight. "I just don't want him to worry so much…"

"Yea… but I think he worries more because he doesn't know things. I think knowing calms him down, rather than being kept in the dark. Sides, he probably knows more than you think." Mikey wasn't going to rat Raph or himself out, just... drop a hint. They may have talked more about the missions than Leo knew. What he did think they did was talk to him about what inventions or things they could need, like something to climb with. They did that too but, it felt seriously wrong to leave out the context just to 'not worry' him. As Raph put it, it was dangerous and stupid.

Leo realised he'd never thought about it that way, he'd just thought about what would be best for Donnie, the less he worried the better. But maybe that just wasn't actually helping… and it certainly wouldn't be good for the team in the long run either…

Plus, unusually enough, Mikey had a good point, Leo thought as he thought it over. The Kraang was becoming a very real problem, and their current way of doing it just wasn't quite cutting it. Their last Kraang mission was quite a big indicator of that, besides, not like he had to involve Donnie in the foot/dragon thing, just the Kraang and the tech stuff. Talking with Donnie wouldn't exactly put him in harm's way either, he'd just get someone to ball ideas with... actually that sounded pretty good.

"Heh, alright. I'll talk to Donnie. Thanks Mikey, I'll keep what you said in mind." Leo smiled.

"Yes!" Mikey gave his brother a big hug before he was left to his own devices, he really felt he'd gotten through to Leo this time.

"~"

* * *

 **And yes, I did feel that Splinters normal elusive support in canon just isn't quite for this Splinter at all times. I mean, of course it would be better for their survival in the long run if they figure stuff out on their own. But they also have some really deadly enemies knocking on their figurative doors, and I think he should and does care enough about them to intervene and help more than just elusive advice when he feels they really do need it in order to not go out and die on missions. I mean, which parent wouldn't say something if they knew it could mean the life or death of their children? So this Splinter gives them more limited time to figure it out before he feels he needs to give them a little stronger nudge in the right direction. I think having to take care of Donatello more as a child has made him more parent-y.**

 **And don't you ever dismiss Mikey's gut feeling.**


	22. Drabble: Valentines

**This was supposed to be up a month ago XD But then the 'Like Three Turtles Do' chapters kinda dragged on and I didn't have the time to finish them on time so this was delayed too. Because I didn't want to squash this drabble inbetween those chapters I waited with posting this one until after instead. So now you get a little bonus drabble along with part 2 of the chapter.**

* * *

Donnie took a deep breath to build up the courage he wasn't sure he had.

April had just arrived and he wasn't going to squander this opportunity, because apparently she was going away on a school trip next week. So she would be gone on the day he'd actually wanted to give it to her.

He hid the object carefully under his blanket where Klunk was still nestled up and rolled out to meet her.

"Hey April!" He smiled as she came up and greeted him.

"Hello there Donnie, how's things going?"

"Oh well, you know.. Raph's arm is still healing but, otherwise we're doing well I think. You know... lots of projects." He smiled and scratched his neck.

"I see, you think his arm will be fine?" She asked as she hunched down and scratched Klunk behind the ears. Donnie realized that sometimes, a cat in your lap was not a bad idea.

"Oh yes, he'll make a full recovery, though… He will have a scar for it. But to be honest, if you ask him, I think he's thrilled about that fact."

"Heh, wouldn't surprise me." She smiled, and Donnie couldn't help but melt a little.

Glancing around he realized he probably had his opportunity, better hurry.

"Well, There was something… I wanted to give you?" He said, and grimaced internally when he hesitated a little, that wasn't how he was supposed to do it. Sewer apples.

"Oh? Really..?" She looked at him, curious and surprised. _Well, can't back out now._

"It's.. it's just… uhm.." He could feel his cheeks heat up and his courage start to deflate, realising his insecurities were about to rear it's ugly head he quickly grabbed the package before he would make things worse.

"This!" He held out the carefully wrapped little gift.

"Eh? For me? Oh." April carefully took the little gift.

"Yea it's uhm.. just a little something, as thanks. You know? For helping out and.. stuff.." He fiddled with his fingers and looked down at Klunk, who seemed to have woken up and looked curiously at what April was holding.

"You didn't have to, but that's very sweet of you~" She said, Donnie dared to look at her and found that she was smiling. He returned the smile with one of his own, feeling like jumping, oh if only he could.

Raph glanced up from his comic and looked at the scene before him and sighed. He wasn't sure how to tell his brother, or if he should. There was no way that was going to happen, but he also felt sorry for him, it must be really hard to like and want to impress someone, when you're a mutant turtle in a wheelchair. Not exactly on the list of impressive things.

Heck, he'd have cold feet just being nervous about the whole mutant thing. Not that he'd ever find anyone like that to care about. But Donnie obviously cared, which meant to a certain extent he had to care about it too. At least as far as Donnie's wellbeing went, and the real possibility of getting hurt. He hoped he could try to cushion it somehow, because as he saw it, sooner or later it was bound to happen.

But for today at least, he'd let his brother be on clouds and be happy about managing to actually give the girl he liked a little gift, even if he didn't actually dare to confess his feelings. A small part of him hoped Donnie would never dare to, that way he could keep it as a sweet faraway dream, or something. Maybe.

* * *

 **The mystery of Raph's arm will be revealed in another chapter haha ;D**


	23. Leo's Sick Day

**Getting sick is never fun. Less so when you're too stubborn for your own good.**

* * *

"Would you like some tea?"

"No, it's fine." Leo gave a weak smile and coughed.

Donnie stared back at him, refusing to break eye contact, until Leo felt slightly uncomfortable.

"Are you sure?" He asked slowly.

"Yes." Leo said, but as Donnie kept staring he felt like his elder brother act was starting to crumble a bit, partly because he was actually not feeling well, and it was increasingly hard to hide. Also, because his throat felt like wired barb and sandpaper.

"I mean…" Cough! ".. No?"

"Finally." Donnie said and left. It didn't take long until he came back with some tea, soup and a few tablets. He suspected he'd gotten some help preparing all that in advance, but didn't say anything about it. In fact, he'd prefer not talking at all, it hurt.

"Leo you're sick, and as your doctor, it is my job to provide you with anything you need. Stop being a stubborn idiot and let me help you." Donnie declared.

"Now take your meds, they will help with the fever, and don't try saying you're fine. You're not. I can see it and there is no way you can hide it from me." Don said with a warning glare.

Leo slowly nodded, he'd never seen Donnie so determined about something before, unless it had to do with his experiments. Figuring his game was up, Leo slowly eased up to sitting and did as instructed.

"How is your throat?"

"… Hurts…" He croaked, his voice finally starting to fail him.

"Then avoid talking, I'll get something for it in a bit, drink a lot of tea, okay? It has some honey in it. Staying hydrated is important, also it helps for your throat."

Leo couldn't do much more than nod, as he was handed a cup of tea, tablets to eat and afterwards some soup. He didn't have much of an appetite but he forced himself to take a few spoons anyway.

"Where.. Raph, Mikey?" He asked.

"Sshh. They're out on patrol, Splinter helped me out with the soup and tea."

"WHAhgrr-" Leo croaked out and started a coughing fit from his sudden outburst.

"They're fine! They're just going to look around, no fighting. Besides you're in no condition to join them. I got contact with them right here if anything is up." He tapped the side of his head, where a small device was attached, his latest headset invention.

"Yu- ca-" Leo heard himself hacking as he coughed violently again.

"No talking. You're grounded. Doctor's orders, now eat your soup." Don said firmly before wheeling off.

Leo felt soar and dry when the coughing finally stopped. He wheezed a little as he turned to get the cup of tea, to his surprise, the relief he felt when he drank it was wonderful. He didn't have the energy to stay awake for long though, finding himself nodding off after finishing his tea and meds.

The next time he jolted awake it was dark, he squinted with his eyes, looking around and trying to adjust to the darkness. He needed the bathroom. Sitting up and putting his feet on the floor he grimaced, his body felt heavy, his legs like lead as he tried to stand up, and the floor felt like ice. He focused on one step at a time. First, he'd make it out of the room.

He found himself stumbling along until he reached the bathroom, he nearly fell off the toilet seat nodding off. Coughing all the way. As he washed his hands he peered into the mirror, what stared back at him was a tired and pale turtle. He could barely believe it, he really looked out of it. No wonder Donnie didn't believe his attempts at playing fine.

"…" Maybe a warm shower would fix it... He gave it a glance, but then thought better of it, people were sleeping, probably. Besides, he was just too tired, his body was heavy, his joints and shell ached and his movements and thoughts felt sluggish. Donnie was right, he was in no condition to go out on patrol, or doing anything else for that matter.

He still didn't like that the others went without him… but there was little he could do about it at this point, he didn't really have the energy to scold them either, he realised after some thought.

Leo tried to say something, and found that only a raspy whine came out, he coughed again. Great, what he needed right now was some water. He carefully trudged over to the kitchen to get a glass.

* * *

Next thing Leo knew he heard voices, he slowly turned his head, he was too tired for this. Couldn't they go away and just leave him alone? He just needed to sleep a little while longer…

The voices persisted though, he unwillingly opened his eyes to tell them off, but after the blur disappeared he realised that he was on the floor, not the bed, but the floor colour was wrong... was that the kitchen floor? There was a weird thing.. no, there was a wheel to his right… Donnie. And then hands were grabbing at him, and he was pretty sure there was something heavy and soft placed on him.

Donnie had gone up early to check on Leo and bring him some tea, only to find he was out of bed. He'd immediately called on Raph and they'd found him sleeping on the floor of the kitchen a few minutes later.

"You stupid.." Raph grumbled and lifted his brother up as Donnie placed a blanket over him.

"You get him back to bed, I'll fix the meds and tea." Donnie said as Raph nodded, carrying a confused and delirious Leonardo back to his room, saying something about the floor colouring being wrong.

"You know, you'd probably be fine by now if you hadn't kept up your act and went out in the rain that day." Raph commented. "Sometimes you're more stubborn and stupid than all of us together, especially when it comes to your own health and safety." Raph complained as Leo was seemingly half listening to him.

Trying to croak something in response Leo found himself getting muffled by Raph's hand.

"Don said no talking. So don't. You'll ruin your throat. Or ruin it more."

Donnie sighed as he put the tray in his lap and wheeled off towards Leo's room. Sometimes you really had to be very firm and aggressively take care of Leo, otherwise he'd just go make things worse for himself. How could someone so greatly concerned for others have such little regard for himself?

Later Leo swore the whole kitchen incident wasn't on purpose, he'd just gone to get some water. He hadn't planned on falling asleep there and getting himself tonsillitis. To Donnie's chagrin.

Thanks to that, Raph and Mikey had to emergency raid a local pharmacy for some antibiotics of the right kind, after Donnie had determined the sickness when Leo had suddenly gotten worse a day later after the incident.

After that he wasn't allowed to sleep alone anymore, and they kept a big can of water so he didn't have to go get that on his own.

* * *

Leo sighed and looked up at the ceiling, he still had a fever, and he was dizzy, and his throat hurt. But he was also slightly bored, he'd been sick for what felt like forever…

"Don..?" He carefully asked.

"Yes?" Donnie looked up from the book he was reading, he had been keeping an eye on his fever and making sure he took his meds on schedule, and kept him company as Mikey and Raph took care of their other duties. Leo's absence didn't warrant a stop in patrols after all.

"Could.. uh.. I was wondering… Could I watch some.. space heroes..?" He asked carefully, hoping he could get something to do.

"Oh, you feel up for it?"

Leo nodded. "I'm still.. dizzy and.. well.. sick, but… I'm a bit bored." He admitted.

"Well, that's a good sign, it means you're getting better. You should take it easy though... Hold on I got an idea."

Leo watched as Donnie disappeared, and it actually took quite a long time for him to come back, he was starting to wonder if Donnie had forgotten when the door was shoved open and he heard a few curses.

"Don..?"

"Hold on just... let me fix this last bit." Donnie muttered as he managed to push his spare wheelchair into the room and sighed. "Finally! That took forever. It was harder than I expected."

"Wha-?"

"I brought my extra wheelchair, now get in. This way you don't have to walk if you're dizzy, or spend unnecessary energy."

"Oh… uh.. thanks?"

Leo had to climb into the wheelchair himself, but Donnie was prepared to catch him, if he happened to fall in his direction anyway. After a bit of struggling Leo managed to get in place and wheel out. Steering wasn't quite what he expected, he'd watched Don do it but never tried himself... but he did manage to get out and place himself in front of the TV.

Donnie helped to bundle him up with blankets and pillows, being the more experienced wheelchair user, he put himself in charge of fixing stuff while Leo could just wait around and be stationary, besides he was still running a mild fever.

When Raph and Mikey came home they found both Donnie and Leo sitting in a wheelchair each in front of the TV with a Space Heroes episode going, they were both cocooned in blankets and were sound asleep.

Splinter came walking by and made a sign for them to be quiet as he turned the TV off and adjusted a pillow.

* * *

 **Another little extra chapter! Next up I'm thinking about tackling how the guys met Leatherhead. That goes down a tad differently too. And Leo and Don has some sorting out to do to get the team in balance. Just hope they can do it in time :D Trying not to jump around in the timeline too much atm so I don't spoil how things go in other chapters. xD But there might be some jumping.**

 **Some other bad guys are coming up as well and there's gonna be more plot-ish chapters in the future~ I just started another new course though that ends in may, so we'll see how much time I'll have, might be a little slow due to some things getting in the way. (Like assignment deadlines ugh).**


	24. Leatherhead

**YES! I finished it! This has been nearly finished for months, I just haven't had any time at all to write. I forgot how much I missed my writing practices. Life sadly gets in the way sometimes, but I finally had a weekend where I could sit down and do whatever I wanted.**

* * *

Leo scoured over the map Donnie had made as they were situated in the lab. At first their meeting had been a tad... awkward. Leo had decided to go against his worries and started including Donnie more. As Mikey had pointed out, it wasn't like he was going to come with them and face the enemy, just help out a bit more here and there, make him feel included.

Donnie had been super excited, apparently, he'd had a lot of time to come up with ideas. Which was, in fact, exactly what Leo needed. It just took some time to get the ball rolling, but once it had Don had pleasantly surprised him. His ideas were far from limited to inventions to solve every problem as he thought they'd be.

"Gosh Donnie I… I'm sorry I didn't realise this was.. I don't know what to say. I feel a bit... stupid. To be honest…"

"You? Feeling stupid?" Don smirked a little.

"Well yea, I was so worried you know? Cause... well…"

"I'm me?" Donnie raised an eye ridge.

"No! I mean, I didn't see because I was so... stubborn, I guess. I think our meetings is going to make a big difference." He smiled and gave Donnie a pat.

"Really? You mean it?" Don beamed. He had been really surprised when Leo had shown up to talk to him, as before he had been rather insistent on him not being involved at all. But now, he wanted help with planning missions and actually involve him.

Don thought he at least deserved that, and Leo had indeed been stupid to think not including him was somehow protecting him… Only took him a minor breakdown over pressure and lack of ideas and Mikey to see that. Now he just needed to convince him of allowing him some more freedom… maybe even come with them. But he had to do it in baby steps of course, but he was sure he could get there.

Leo was relieved, Donnie seemed content, and even though he was more involved than before, he was still kept out of harm's way and in the lair, where it was safe, as he should be. Leo felt he really had been falling out of touch with his brothers a bit lately… He could blame the stress and their enemies… but he knew better than that, it would just be another excuse.

He had to do better, they were all counting on him to do his very best and lead the team. If it meant giving Donnie a carrot here and there that was fine, as long as he never went outside, besides it was helping the whole team and overall it had been a great decision.

Now that this potential fire was put out and all was well, he could focus on other things, like coming up with a combat plan for the Kraang, they seriously needed to up their game…

* * *

Later that night Mikey walked past Leo, who seemed to be in a better mood.

"Yo what's up?"

"Oh nothing much, going through a list Donnie gave me on things we need to prepare."

"Ooh how did the talk go?"

"Really well, I think we both solved that issue, Don stays safe here and get more included, and I get some help with ideas and planning, it's all working out great."

"Oh, great!"

However, as Mikey was sitting in the sofa after his chat with Leo, he couldn't help but feel like his brothers might not truly be on the same page when he thought about what Donnie had said…

* * *

Donnie turned his wheelchair and smiled at Mikey. "I was actually surprised you know? I have you to thank for that I take?"

Mikey chuckled. "Naah, it wasn't all me, but I might have had a hand in it." He winked.

"I can finally put some of my ideas to use, and talk to Leo about the missions, I mean, properly talk about them. So I can actually be of real help."

"Don you ARE real help, I mean, the medic is like the most important job, right?"

"Well.. I guess.. but not as useful if I'm far away and an emergency happens… I know it's only the beginning, but I have some ideas. And for certain situations I was thinking I could actually get to come with you at some point! I mean, not yet of course, small steps, but I really think that with the right inventions and planning I can help out even more. I'm tired of being cooped up in the lair, you know?"

"Oh… well.. I get that, it would be awesome if you could join us!" Mikey smiled, he wasn't sure how that would work out, but Donnie was smart right? He could probably figure out some cool invention that could make him come with them.

"Right~?"

He hadn't lied at all, Mikey did think it would be awesome, he just wasn't so sure Leo shared that sentiment. Getting him to plan with Don was one thing but convincing him to take him with them was another altogether. It would take a lot to make him agree… he just hoped things would work out somehow, so they could both be happy. For now, Leo and Don's little fight had calmed down, but he had an inkling it would blossom up again in the near future…

"Hrrmnh…" He pouted slightly before deciding to go make some popcorn.

* * *

They had been very surprised during their weekly sewer patrol when they'd heard a noise in the tunnels, and upon investigating they realised there was a big mutant crocodile thing fighting the Kraang.

Mikey had immediately insisted that they should help him, Leo wasn't so sure though.

"Mikey, he could be dangerous, besides he seems fine."

 _Thud!_

"Okay, less fine. But..Uh.."

As the crocodile fell unconscious, they had less reason to not jump in and help out, and Mikey got what he wanted. Raph and Leo jumped in and started fending off the Kraang while Mikey checked on the big mutant.

"Uh guys? He's alive but... I don't really know what else, he's not exactly moving. I think we should take him to Donnie."

Raph almost stopped himself mid-punch. As the Kraang went down he turned.

"SAY WHAT?! Mikey are you crazy?!" Raph yelled as he stabbed down another Kraang droid coming his way. "We're not gonna bring that big thing into the lair!"

"But I think he needs help! He could be hurt! Besides…" Mikey unfolded his nun-chucks and started helping drive the Kraang off as he couldn't really do more for the big mutant. "I think he's on our side! I mean, he's an enemy of the Kraang!"

They watched as the last of the Kraang fled. Leo turned as soon as he was sure they'd retreated.

"Mikey.. Just cause he is their enemy doesn't mean he's our friend, for all we know he could attack us the moment he wakes up."

"Nah, I think he's a good guy."

"How would you know that? We literally just saw him attack and fight the Kraang, he could do the same to us!"

"Duh, they were hurting him, of course he'd fight them, but we won't~" Mikey hugged the big mutant and rubbed his cheek against the rough scales.

"I don't know about this…"

It took a lot of convincing, Mikey tried to appeal to his brothers using his cutest faces, and promising to do the dishes for a week, in exchange for helping the mutant out. But also, he kinda refused to leave without it.

"Sensei's not gonna like this.." Leo sighed as he watched Mikey struggling as he tried to move the mutant.

Raph grumbled as they dragged the heavy mutant along the sewer tunnels. "I can't believe we're doing this. Sensei's going to flip." While he kind of wouldn't mind seeing Splinter's shocked expression at what 'pet' Mikey had dragged home, he really wasn't sure having this big thing around was worth getting to see that.

* * *

Once they were home, Splinter and Donnie had... mixed reactions.

"WHY in the world would you bring home something like that?!" Donnie exclaimed at the sight of the big Reptile. "You do realise alligators eat turtles in the wild, right?"

"Uh.. I… did NOT know that." Mikey said and smiled sheepishly.

"Geez… thanks for the image Don."

"If it helps, you're welcome."

"But he was fighting the Kraang!" Mikey protested. "So, he gotta be a good guy! Besides he's hurt, and he could really use some help... please?" Mikey clasped his hands together and looked pleadingly at his brother.

"…." Donnie made a face as his brother stared at him and pleaded. It was really hard to say no to that face… besides he kind of owed him a favour. As long as the big mutant was unconscious… "Okay… fine." Don sighed in defeat, somehow, they were doing this, and it was absolutely insane.

Splinter stood silently and inspected the big mutant, if it had any intention of hurting his sons it would be out before it knew it… But if it indeed was as Mikey insisted... it could prove to be a powerful ally…

"I think it best if we stay on the side of caution, to err in this situation can be very dangerous. Let's not make any hasty decisions."

Leo looked sceptically at the gator, it was unconscious now but… "Let's tie him up first, okay? I don't want any accidents, just until we know if he'll attack us or not."

"Yea, good idea. I'll get the chains." Raph said and went off.

"And make sure it cannot break loose." Splinter added.

"Could you get my medical kit in the meantime Mikey? Oh, and probably some extra bandages, he's quite big." Don mentioned while he tried to take in the big thing in front of him, he wasn't sure if he really wanted to be close to it…

"Gotcha!" Mikey saluted and ran off towards the med-bay. When he came back Leo and Raph worked together to secure the chains around the big mutant. He felt sorry for him, but he also understood the importance of being careful, it was just in case. He'd be up later and prove to the others he was a good guy and he would be out of those chains in no time. He was sure of it.

"I'm back~!"

"Thanks" Don took the medic kit and swallowed as he wheeled in close to the big reptile with more teeth than he wanted to ever be that close to.

"Okay.." Trying to remember to breathe he started working with Mikey as his assistant, while their two older brothers kept a really close watch in case the gator so much as twitched.

After a good bit of work, he was patched up. He'd taken some hits from the Kraang tasers, but luckily his skin was very thick, so his injuries weren't severe. Some rest and light treatment would most likely do it. He hoped it would let the bandages around the arm be kept on for at least a while though, as it had taken quite a bit of damage in the fight and could get infected easily in the sewers.

Metal from the Kraang had managed to get through the thick skin in a few places he suspected the gator had smashed against them, and Donnie had to pluck it out, clean the wounds and wrap it all up.

He decided to store the metal bits for further study, as it didn't seem to be anything he recognised.

* * *

There had been pain, a lot of pain, and enemies, enemies everywhere... but he felt no pain now. Nor did he hear anything that even hinted at the enemy. Slowly he opened his eyes, only to find himself in an unfamiliar place, with a green little reptile smiling at him.

"Take it easy big guy! We saved you from a big fight and you're a bit hurt." The little guy said in a hurry. He seemed concerned. That's odd, he'd never met someone who was concerned for his wellbeing before.

Slowly he stirred and tried to sit up, then realised he was actually tied up. The little reptile seemed to realise he was staring down at the chains around his arms.

"Sorry about that! The others said it was best to be on the safe side, since we don't really know you. But I'm sure you're a good guy!"

He stared at the… he was pretty sure it was another mutant, a turtle?

"Oh, I'm Mikey by the way!"

Mikey. He'd never seen someone so... trustful, so happy looking, he was talking to him like it was the most normal of things, and smiling. He found himself attempting at smiling back slightly and cleared his throat.

"I understand. It is nice to meet you... Where am I..?"

"Oh! You're in our lair! It's our home! We can totally play some games later when the others let you off!"

"Games?" He felt slightly confused, not really sure what that meant. Mikey seemed surprised at his reaction too.

"You don't know what it is? Then I have to show you! I can teach you how to play later!"

As Mikey smiled he attempted to smile back as nicely as he could manage. "That sounds nice."

Then the others Mikey was talking about showed up. Three of them seemed to be like Mikey, sort of, but the fourth reminded him of... the little rats scurrying about in the sewers, but a lot bigger, how very odd. They paused and look at him, almost waiting expectantly for something.

He cleared his throat a bit more, feeling the dryness from being unconscious for a while… "I am very thankful for the rescue, and for bringing me all the way into your home… I understand your caution." He added. He was very aware of how intimidating he could look.

The rad nodded at him. "You are welcome to stay until you are healed, so long as you behave and do not mean any harm."

The rat didn't say anything about staying longer than that, but that seemed fair. He wouldn't expect them to let him stay, he did have his own home to return to. He'd never really had friends, but if he could, Mikey seemed like a nice guy, so he'd rather not have an episode and be on his best behaviour and- Then he was reminded of something urgent.

"The crystal!" He blurted.

".. Crystal?" The others looked at each other uncertainly. So, they didn't know then. That might be a good sign.

"I was protecting a crystal.. I need to get it back before..." He tried not to think about it, he couldn't afford to lose control right now, there were more important matters to attend to, like securing the crystal.

"I am thankful for your rescue, but I should really go make sure it is safe."

"You really shouldn't though, your arm is in bad shape." Don found the courage to say, being silent until now. Despite the mutant being quite big and intimidating, he couldn't help but let the doctor in him advice his patient against risky ventures, as he felt the need to do so.

He hesitated as the turtle in the chair mentioned his injury. It would be hard getting past the traps… He gave the turtles a glance, and decided to trust them. "Then… you need to do something for me. It is quite urgent, I need you to get the crystal for me. I can give you the location if you promise to bring it back here to me."

Leo pondered on what the big crocodile thing was saying, a crystal? It sounded suspicious… but then the Kraang would probably use something like that? Before he could ask anything, Raph was pulling him to the side and away.

"you belivin' any of this?"

Leo gave the big mutant a glance as he talked to Mikey, who seemed happy to fire off questions.

"Well, the kraang wanting a crystal of some kind is plausible… we should check it out at least. If he tells the truth, it's probably best they don't get their hands on it."

"Okay, but what do we do about him?" Raph gave a nod towards the big croc.. gator.. thing. Whatever Don had called it.

"…." Leo thought about that for a moment, Splinter is there, but having someone distract the mutant and who can quickly contact them might be a good idea. No offense to Splinter but he wasn't good with tech, and if something happened and Don couldn't get away... well he'd rather not think about it.

"I've got an idea."

Leonardo walked right back up to the pair. "Okay, we'll get your crystal, me and Raph will go, so just tell us where it is."

The mutant nodded and relayed his instructions on where to find it. Before they left they gave Mikey explicit instructions to keep the mutant occupied and mask sure he didn't cause any trouble.

"And no taking the chains off until we're back and know it is safe." He added, just to be on the safe side. Mikey did get ideas sometimes.

"Got it!"

* * *

Mikey smiled up at the big mutant as he sipped on the soup. "Like it?"

"Very much, thank you." He gave a toothy smile.

"So, what's your name? Mine is Michelangelo."

"Michelangelo? That's a good name. I don't really have one."

"You don't? Oh my gosh! We have to give you one..!" He exclaimed, he quickly jumped up and started inspecting him.

"Hmm … Hm.. hm.. No.. nope.. Claw.. leather.. scaley..? No.. Hm your head is kinda leathery.. Headleather..? .. Leatherhead!" He said happily after some speculation.

"Leatherhead? … I like it. Leatherhead it is."

"Great! So.. why are those Kraang after the crystal? It is the Kraang, right?"

As soon as he had asked that question Leatherhead froze, then his eyes got weird and he started trashing.

"Leatherhead? Woah.. Hey! Calm down...!" Mikey fell backwards as the gator hit him. He backed off a bit. Apparently, talking about the Kraang was a big no, no. He looked around, he had to fix this fast.

It took him a good few minutes, but eventually the big mutant was calm again.

"I'm sorry, I can't quite control my temper when…"

"Okay, right. Got it… We'll just avoid talking about those pink blobs then, okay?" Mikey smiled as he carefully caressed Leatherhead's snout in an attempt to keep the calmness. Glancing around no one seemed to have noticed the ruckus, Leo and Raph weren't back yet and it would probably take some time.

He sighed in relief, he was still doing his job right.

* * *

In the meantime, Leo screamed out as a big pointy thing came flying as they dodged yet another deadly trap.

"WHY in the world would he not mention these?!"

"Don't ask me! Keep dodging!"

They were both out of breath as they finally made it to the crystal. They stared at it. Guess he was telling the truth.

"Oh okay, that was harder than expected, but we got it." Raph grabbed the crystal and got blasted backwards.

"Ow!"

"Uh, you okay..?" Leo grabbed the container they had taken with them from his bag and carefully scooped it up.

"Yea.. but I ain't touching it again, you carry it back."

"Fine." He hesitated a bit however at the water, he hoped this thing was waterproof and that it wouldn't electrocute him… Raph growing impatient decided to just push him into the water and dove after.

* * *

When they finally got back, they walked straight to where the guy was chained up.

"You did not mention-" Raph paused as he saw the big mutant was in fact not chained up anymore.

"Mikey!"

"Oh hey guys! It's fine! You can trust him!" Mikey waved happily.

"Do not worry, I feel very calm thanks to Michelangelo here, I will not attack you."

"How am I not supposed to worry?"

"Raph, easy…" Leo cautioned, but he was definitely on guard.

"Believe me, I'm not an enemy, you can ask me anything you like. I'll gladly give you any information you want."

"Oh well, in that case.." He relaxed slightly, the mutant did seem to want to be of help.

"Leatherhead." Mikey added. "It's his name."

"Okay.. Leatherhead. I was wondering if you could tell me something about the Kraang?"

"No wait..!" But it was too late, Mikey saw in horror as Leatherhead zoned out.

They watched in surprise when Leatherhead suddenly attacked.

"Mikey! I thought you said he was fine..!"

"He is fine! He's just traumatised! He goes into a rage panic when you mention the Kraang! … Oops.."

"You could have warned us!"

"You didn't give me the time to, I didn't know that was gonna be your first question! Woah!" He ducked under the tail when it came swinging towards him.

* * *

Donnie suddenly heard a lot of noise coming from his brothers, he sighed, why did they have to scream at each other? But then there was a big thump that nearly sent his beaker crashing to the floor. "Oh for..!"

He rolled out to check on them. "Guys! What in the world are you-" He froze and barely had the time to react before a big green hand blocked the entirety of his vision.

There was now a lot of screaming. Raph knew he should have trusted his instinct, this mutant was nothing but trouble!

Donnie screamed in surprise as he was thrown around like a ragdoll, Leo flailed around trying to grab him.

"Get Donnie! Restrain it! Restrain its arms!" He shouted in panic. Raph did his best to do just that. He jumped on the big crocodile's arm and tried to hold him down so Leo could get Donnie free.

"Hang in there Donnie! We'll get ya!" He held down with all his strength, using his anger as a booster, this big croc needed to be beat down, chained, muzzled and and and.. thrown out of the lair and never come back, or he would personally flay it! Only problem was it was way bigger and way stronger than he was.

In the meantime Mikey was caught between panic and trying to calm the big gator down, he knew he was triggered by any mentions of the Kraang, it had been stupid not to mention that to his brothers! And now one of them was in trouble.

"There, there! Calm down big guy! We're friends! We're not.. them! Calm down!" He tried to pet him and talk calmly, despite feeling the opposite on the inside.

Donnie was terrified, he'd never been thrown around like this before, and he couldn't really see anything either, his head, neck and shoulders hurt like hell from all the trashing, and he was unable to tell if his legs hit anything, he really hoped not. At this speed he could get some nasty bruising without realising, which could lead to worse things. But right now, he just really wanted his face free and for the trashing to stop.

Raph saw in surprise and relief how Splinter suddenly jumped in, he hit a number of spots on the big mutant in quick succession and Leatherhead went down like a log. Taking Raph, Donnie and Leo with him.

"I think it best if our mutant friend leaves." Splinter said firmly.

Donnie really did felt like a ragdoll, a broken one, as he was easily picked up by Splinter, legs hanging limp, not really feeling much beyond the pain in his neck and head. He chided himself as he caught his mind comparing himself to something like that. Bad brain.

"I'll take Donatello to the infirmary, I trust you will tie this up in the meantime." Splinter said with a firm voice no one wanted to argue against.

Donnie automatically reached for his wheelchair as they approached it, but Splinter walked past it. Don looked back at the wheelchair and then up at Splinter, unsure about the situation, Splinter's expression didn't really give anything away, but he seemed determined to take him all the way. It was some time ago since he last got carried like this, as Don had learned to manage most things on his own. Frankly It was slightly embarrassing.

He stayed silent and let his father carry him back towards the medical corner of his lab, not really daring to say anything.

"How is your neck?" Splinter asked as he gently put Donatello down on the medical bed. Right. Of course, he was technically the patient now and should keep as still as possible.

"It's… it hurts, but I think I'm gonna be fine." He carefully moved his head a bit, had anything been broken it would have already been quite noticeable to say the least, but he just felt sore and strained. Mutant bodies weren't all bad, he was pretty sure he would've been dead if he were human. Luckily, he wasn't.

While Don assessed his own damage and carefully felt around his neck, Splinter started to go through his legs to see if anything was broken, as Don couldn't tell himself unless the damage was clearly visible.

"Nothing broken, I think." Splinter let out a sigh of relief. All in all, his son seemed to be doing rather well despite the violent incident. There were however some visible bruises that had started to form that they needed to keep track of.

* * *

"Well, that could have gone better.. hey Leatherhead? You okay..?" Mikey tried to soothingly wake him up to see if he was alright. When he did he was calm again.

"What..?" Leatherhead blinked and looked around him.

"Sorry bro, you had another episode.."

"Oh.. Perhaps it is better… if I leave." He got up and took his crystal, then moved away and out into the sewers as quickly as he could manage, so he wouldn't accidentally hurt them again. He hadn't meant to, but it happened, as he suspected he lacked control. It wasn't safe to be close to them at all, so the further away he came the better and safer for them.

"Hey..! Leatherhead..! No wait! It wasn't your fault!" Mikey called as Leatherhead disappeared, but it was too late. He looked sadly at the floor, of course what had happened was pretty bad. He almost forgot sometimes how defenceless Donnie could be and watching him get thrown around like that had been scary.

But it wasn't leatherheads fault! In a way it was no ones, Leatherhead hadn't meant to do that... besides if he had warned his brothers the whole thing could have been prevented, it was only his own clumsiness that brought about the situation, so he had to take responsibility and fix this! Starting with Leatherhead.

He nodded, mostly to himself as he made up his mind and went after the big guy. Leatherhead was his friend, and friends stick together.

He quickly ran, listening for the big mutant, he wasn't too hard to follow, once he caught up with him he realised he'd stopped by some old subway tracks.

"Leatherhead!"

He looked up, slightly surprised one of the turtles had followed him, though if any of them would it would be Michelangelo.

"It's better if you stay away, I'm not safe to be around."

"No! We're friends! Besides it wasn't your fault! I'm to blame too, I should have warned my brothers not to mention Kr- well, you know what I mean. It's not like it happened completely at random dude."

"Hmm.. I still don't think I should be under the same roof… it's not safe, I'm dangerous. I don't want to harm you."

"You won't!"

* * *

".. Hey.. where did Mikey go?" Raph questioned as he was helping Leo clean up the few things that had the misfortune of being in the way of Leatherhead.

"He didn't follow Splinter and Donnie..?" The then looked at each other and had the same hunch all at once.

"Oh no. You don't think..?"

"That's exactly the kinda thing he would do."

"We gotta get to him before he gets hurt..!" They quickly rushed out of the lair to look for their brother.

* * *

"You're not dangerous! As long as we avoid the K-word it's perfectly fine! Please don't leave us, I've never had another mutant friend before."

"You consider me... your friend?" He couldn't quite put his claw on the feeling but... he felt moved by the gesture, this was the first time he'd felt like someone else genuinely cared for him.

"You who are in this place that is known as this place will give the Kraang that which is known as the power source."

"!" Mikey turned to see a bunch of Kraang droids appearing.

Leo and Raph walked and called after their brother, it wasn't safe to run around on his own, especially since they'd spottet Kraang in the sewers.

"Mikey..!"

Then they heard shooting. "… The Kraang..!"

When the burst forward they saw Mikey and Leatherhead fighting off Kraang droids, Leatherhead was trashing around and attacking while Mikey tried to defend the croc's behind and keep the Kraang at bay. It was then that Mikey spotted them.

"Guys!" He called out, at that moment they saw how the Kraang was shooting, they waved wildly and rushed forward, this was so time to look away from a battle!

Luckily for Mikey, Leatherhead wasn't as gone as his brothers thought he was, and he quickly jumped over to shield the little turtle from the shots fired.

"Leatherhead..!" Mikey roared and quickly jumped over the big reptile to take down the droids shooting at him, and his brothers joined him in helping to defend Leatherhead.

"See? He's on our side! He's not as bad as you think!"

"Okay, but can't we take this after we take these guys out?"

In the end, they all managed to drive the Kraang away a second time, Leo looked cautiously at Leatherhead, but he did seem to calm down after the fighting had ended.

In the end, they decided it was best Leatherhead got his own place, but he was welcome to visit, and they'd view him as a friend and ally, which he was immensely grateful for, just knowing someone he could call friend was out there felt really good. He also decided that the crystal was in better protection with the turtles.

"I've seen you fight them, I think this would be better protected in your hands… I trust you."

"Oh.. thanks?" Leo wasn't quite sure how to respond to the gesture but accepted the crystal.

* * *

 ** _Weeks later…_**

Donnie turned the corner only to be met by the giant mutant known as Leatherhead.

"!" He was so surprised he tried to wheel backwards too fast, toppling it over and causing him to fall backwards.

He stared up at the ceiling in surprise, gasping a little and trying to calm his heart. It wasn't every day you found a big alligator mutant around the corner.

Leatherhead jolted at the sudden fall, and stared down at the surprised mutant. "I did not mean to scare you." He said, after a moment he realised the little turtle might not be able to get up on his own, as he made no move to do so.

Don felt a slight sense of panic as big, clawed hands slowly closed around his shell and lifted him upwards. His breath hitched as he was shifted around to hang over one arm, he was sort of expecting to be thrown around again, only, it didn't happen. Instead he held on to not fall down.

Leatherhead slowly moved the turtle around, being mindful. Mikey had mentioned he was more fragile and needed to be handled with care, perhaps not those exact words, but he choose to interpret it as such regardless. He could tell something wasn't quite right with his legs.

Upon freeing one arm he tilted the odd-looking chair back in its previous position, then placed the turtle down on it, trying to make him fit into it the way he had before.

"Th-thank you.." Don managed to squeak out as he was placed back in his wheelchair, surprised at how such a big, bulky mutant could be so careful. He tried to smile back without seeming too nervous when Leatherhead flashed him a smile, showing off those rows of sharp teeth.

"Leatherhead!" Mikey exclaimed as he spotted them "What are you doing here?" He rushed towards them and jumped into a hug. "Don't get me wrong though! It's been too long! I'm glad you're visiting!"

"So am I." He smiled and returned the hug. In truth he had missed the company, having someone to talk to was so much better than being alone all the time. He didn't mind per see, but some company once in a while was still very pleasant.

Leatherhead had come for a visit, partly to keep some company, but also warn them about the Kraang's movements, they were up to something and it was best if they stayed on alert and were careful. He'd hate it if his new friends were caught unawares by the Kraang.

* * *

"Can you stop referring to him as a crocodile? He's obviously an alligator." Don pointed out in the middle of their conversation, finding it annoying that no one seemed to agree and mix it up left and right.

"Uh.. is there a difference?" Mikey said and looked quite uncertain at his big friend.

".. Yea. They're different species. You can correct them, right?" Don looked at Leatherhead.

Leatherhead cleared his throat. "Frankly.. I don't... I haven't really thought about it."

"… I give up." Don said and sighed. Leatherhead the croc-gator it was then, for all that the others seemed to care.

"I am sorry." Leatherhead genuinely replied.

"Aww don't be! It's fine~ I dunno what kinda turtle I am!" Mikey said as he hugged Leatherhead's arm.

Don sighed as he held back his comment, he'd told Mikey several times about his theories but it just never seemed to stick, he'd probably tuned him out on purpose when he had tried to have that conversation. Their unmutated origins might not interest his brothers, but he found it interesting to speculate about on occasion.

Leatherhead smiled, enjoying the fact he had friends, and they were relaxed enough around him to actually argue about something like that.


	25. April takes the initiatives

**I'm not very proud of this chapter, I feel like I could have done a lot better. But it's done and I haven't had the time to finish or update a chapter in quite some time, so I thought I might as well post this. I do have a bunch of unfinished chapters, but they require quite a bit of work on them so I can't say for sure when I'll be able to post them. I'll do my best though!**

* * *

Don sighed and lightly stroked the fluffy feathers of Aristotle, who had nestled close to the computer's side, as he looked through some coding and sipped on his coffee.

"Guys, guys! I found something!" April came running in with her laptop, again. They all looked up from what they were doing.

"Oh hi April!" Don smiled wide and beamed.

"You guys seem to be in a good mood? Anyway! I think I finally figured out where a Kraang hideout might be!"

"Really?" Leo perked up and went to join her as the others came in to have a look.

"Yea, check this out..!" April put up some pictures and evidence she had gathered through her forums and showed where it was on the map.

"Hm yea this is definitely worth checking out.."

"Great! Let's go!" She cheered.

Donnie couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed that she wanted to leave so soon, but said nothing about it. He couldn't really ask her to stay when they had a possible lead on her dad.

"What? Now?" Leo stared at April. "We can't go now."

"Why not?"

"It's still daytime? We can check it out during the evening, but we'll be seen if we go now."

"…" April looked at Leo for a moment and then the others. "Fine. Then I'll go. You might not be able to, but I can do it." She gathered her laptop and seemed determined to do so.

"Wait! Are.. are you sure? I mean... what if you really run into the Kraang?" Donnie questioned. Worried to see her go off on her own and not being able to help, or follow.

"Yea, Don's right. It's dangerous April." Leo pointed out as he walked in front of her.

"Look. My father is missing, and no one is going to stand in my way, so back off." She retorted and glared at Leo as he blocked her path.

"… Okay." Leo stepped aside and let her pass. They watched in concern as she took off.

"I hope she doesn't walk into trouble..." Don said, not really bothering to hide his worry.

"She'll be fine." Mikey patted his brother on the shoulder and went back to eating his pizza. Don sighed, then gave Mikey a slightly disapproving look before wiping the pizza grease off his shoulders.

"At least wash your hands before you touch things... or people." He mumbled before picking up Aristotle and going to get his invention ready. This possible mission might be a good time to test his new devices, and he still had some time before sundown for final adjustments.

* * *

"Hey Donnie?" Mikey peeked into the lab where Donnie sat by the table, working with a screwdriver on something tiny.

".. Yea?" He replied after a moment, taking the magnifying glasses off his head.

"Well, I just thought you looked a little stressed out, and if you got some time, would you like to take a relaxing bath?" Mikey figured asking first was better, because he knew Donnie didn't like asking for help unless it was absolutely necessary, so this way he didn't have to.

Don looked at Mikey in surprise. "Oh well, thanks for the offer but..." He glanced at his project. "I kinda wanted to finish this invention so we can test it on the mission tonight."

"Oh, well.. how about just an hour then? It wouldn't hurt, right? Also, I think you look like you need it!"

"I dunno... my invention needs some work…" He looked a little hesitantly from his project to Mikey.

"Come oon~ It'll be nice! It's like.. many hours until the mission!" Well, by his standard it felt like many. Also, Mikey didn't have anything to do right now while they waited, and he was bored, not because Raph suggested it, but helping a brother out seemed like an excellent idea. So, here he was.

"Hmm alright, but only for a moment."

* * *

April dodged behind a crate, carefully listening in on the Kraang.

"That which is known as the water supply is where kraang will dump that which is known as the mutagen."

"Kraang find that this plan, which is made by kraang, is a most excellent plan."

She gasped, this was bad. If they went ahead… the whole city could be mutated! It was barely evening but... she figured it would be dark soon enough to convince the guys to go out earlier than usual, as this was kind of an emergency. She carefully took her phone out to alert the turtles.

"Please hurry it up guys..." Now for an exit plan…

"April texted! We gotta go stop the Kraang!"

"Oh yea? What happened to "daylight, can't do it?" Raph questioned, raising an eye ridge.

"They're gonna dump mutagen into the water! It's… well, kinda dark? Uhm, soon. Besides she is under attack! Let's go!"

"Well that changes things."

They quickly stopped what they were doing and rushed off to meet up with April at the address she had texted them.

* * *

Jumping across the rooftops they landed on the one April was hiding on, barely thirty minutes after she texted.

"Guys, over here!"

"Uh, I wouldn't call this under attack April.." Leo looked around, there didn't seem to be any Kraang around, and they didn't seem to know she was here either.

"Yea, no Kraang here... ooor~?" Mikey glanced around the vents.

"Emergency doesn't mean I am under attack. The city is under attack, and we have to stop it."

On the rooftop April explained what she'd heard, they clearly had to go in there.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Raph started to stretch a little to get ready for some fighting.

"Hold on, we need a plan." Leo said, sounding a little irritated as he used the spyglass to check out the place. Ignoring Raph and Mikey as they couldn't seem to keep still long enough for him to come up with one.

"Okay, we're going in, April you stay here."

"Hey!"

"It's too dangerous, you could get hurt. We got this." He said and then they were off. April huffed in annoyance as she watched them sneak in.

It didn't take long before all hell broke loose.

She watched from the rooftop as the lightshow of lasers continued and sighed. Perhaps she should have ignored Leo and joined them? The fight just kept dragging on and on… After what felt like forever, and since there hadn't been shots fired in at least a few minutes she started climbing down to check out what was going on in there.

* * *

 **A few minutes earlier…**

Leo jumped down and sneaked to the side, glancing around he saw a loose window and nodded towards it. They both nodded and climbed through it.

"Okay.. Raph you go left, I go right. Mikey… I'm sorry, you gotta distract them."

"Hey… why do I always gotta distract while you and Raph do the ambushing...?"

"It'll be different this time. Just... do what I tell you to, this will work." Leo explained and darted off.

"You do kinda attract our enemies a lot." Raph pointed out.

"Do not." Mikey replied and blew his tongue at his brother before disappearing off.

Raph and Leo went in from the sides, they observed as the gathered Kraang stood guarding, and a few were hauling some mutagen canisters to dump.

"Not on my watch…" Leo waited until Mikey suddenly jumped out from behind a few crates, screaming at them and throwing a few stars before darting back behind his cover, just about dodging the lasers.

 _Now!_ He jumped forward and smiled as Raph came in from the other side at the same time, they took out a few of them by pure surprise. As Mikey had drawn their attention, just as planned. While they attacked and drew the fire towards them Mikey re-joined them from above, having climbed up and jumped down to make an ambush of his own while Raph and Leo had taken over the distraction.

While Raph and Leo focused mostly on fighting Mikey noticed the ones working with the mutagen.

"Oh no you don't!" He hooked his chain around them and pulled them back from what he presumed were where they'd dump the stuff.

As they fought though, reinforcements arrived at the scene.

"Raah!" Raph stabbed a droid in the eye, and took a swing, sending the head through the air and hitting two more. As one was about to hit him from behind, Leo showed up and cut it down, then they took a back to back position to cover each other and defend against the oncoming attackers.

"Mikey!"

"Huh?" Mikey paused from picking the canister up and realised his brothers had a few too many Kraangs to deal with, he abandoned the canister and threw a few shurikens as he charged in.

They were slowly backed into a corner and were forced to hide behind some crates as another set of Kraang came and started shooting at them.

"Great! We're trapped!"

"Oor, maybe they're trapped!" Mikey suggested and peeked up from their hiding spot.

"!" He quickly ducked down. "No, it's us. We're trapped."

The Kraang stopped shooting.

"Kraang demands that which is known as the turtles to do that which is known as stand down."

"What now fearless?" Raph looked at Leo.

"Uh.. I'm thinking..." He glanced around, they were trapped behind a bunch of crates and the Kraang would most likely shoot them the moment they appeared again, though they didn't seem to dare approach them carelessly either. There were a number of pipes and machinery on the premises they could probably hit with a few well-placed projectiles... However, he had no idea what any of those machines did... he wished he was as smart as Donnie in these kinds of situations, he'd probably know what to hit.

He decided to try give Donnie a call while the Kraang were still hesitating, before they could figure out they could just attack them. "Come on, pick up…" The signal went through a few times… "He's not picking up." he sighed.

"Oh to hell with it…!" Leo peeked up and threw a few stars, it hit a monitor and a few pipes, but nothing happened. Raph stared at him in surprise.

"That's it? That was your great plan?"

"I'm sorry, okay! Look, you try distracting them, we'll throw a crate and get out of this corner and-"

There was a loud groan coming from the other side of the building, the Kraang paused their careful advance on the turtles and looked around. Leo smiled, maybe it HAD worked after all…

Looking up however he realised it wasn't his throwing stars at all, it was April, she'd caused the sound.

"Uh.. is this a bad time?" She stared at the Kraang who now looked towards her, then she had to quickly duck for cover.

"Guys! Now!" Leo took the opportunity to dart out, taking out a few enemies who had turned their backs on them, their mistake. The fight kept going, and he wasn't quite sure how much longer they could do this. Maybe grabbing the canisters and bolting wasn't such a bad option. Then again, they could have more of them close by…

As he jumped around avoiding getting shot he pushed his shell against a beam, it groaned dangerously. He glanced at it, why hadn't he spotted that before? He reprimanded himself. Looking around, the structure had been shot several times…

"Guys! Get them to shoot at the beams..!" He yelled.

He kept dodging and tried to make them shoot the beams, he also tried to keep their attention off his brothers as much as possible. Which he'd rather not keep for long, there were at least five or six Kraang for every turtle at this point. Numbers had never been on their side, but leaving just two or one of them fighting could be disastrous.

He also had to keep track of April. As the building was starting to sound dangerous from the creaking beams they'd hit so far, he decided it was time to start pulling out.

"Mikey get April! I'll get the canisters! Raph get a beam down and we're out of here!" He hoped it would start a domino effect if they could get one of the beams out, he remembered vaguely that Donnie had gone over the cause and effect and how it was something to apply to your surroundings in combat and something, something. He didn't know precisely which one would be the best choice, but he could see which were easily enough to bring down, and at this point he figured it wouldn't matter too much.

As Mikey rushed to April's side, blocking and hitting a few Kraangs he realised what he'd forgotten.

"I FORGOT DONNIE IN THE BATHTUB!"

"You did what?!"

"Mikey!"

"We'll talk about this later, now get out!"

He picked up the canisters in sight and ran towards the exit while Raph brought down a beam. It didn't cause a total collapse, but at least half the building's inside started falling apart.

As they landed on the rooftop, they glanced back.

"Uh, that didn't go exactly as intended but... at least we stopped the Kraang."

"Yea, let's go before the city sends us a bill." Raph rolled his eyes.

"Guys, what about that?" Mikey pointed towards the van. There were a number of canisters, and due to the cave-in no Kraang had come out yet.

They all looked at the van with mutagen.

"Huh."

* * *

 **Five minute later…**

"Are you crazy?" Raph commented as they drove down the street.

"Well… we couldn't just leave it and there was too much to carry! Besides April's driving just fine."

"Right. Just so you guys know, I've only had a couple of lessons…" She said stiffly as she carefully drove down the street, she was more than grateful for the lack of traffic at this hour. "And I have by no means a license."

"See? If a cop shows up, what are we gonna say? Hey officer! Sorry we don't have a license, but this is an emergency! We hope you don't mind giant, talking turtles and a van loaded with dangerous chemicals!"

"Oh please, like that would happen."

"Guys, please just be quiet, I really need to concentrate so we don't get busted."

In the end they decided to hide the van in an alley fairly close to the lair where they could safely unload it. April was just glad she managed to get them there in one piece.

"And what the heck are we gonna do with all of these..?"

"I dunno, but as long as the Kraang or the foot doesn't get a hold of it... Maybe we can ask Donnie if he can make some kind of safe vault."

"You mean me and Donnie, we'd have to build something big for this, and that means I gotta do the leg work." Raph said gruffly. Building a vault because of Leo's whims was not on his list of fun things to do.

"We can all help." Leo pointed out.

"Heh, right. We all know I'm the favourite assistant, not to brag but… you're too clumsy with electronics." Raph said with a smug smile.

"Am not. I just.. find them difficult to-"

"I'm definitely the cutest assistant though!" Mikey said in an attempt to break them up. He was bored with their constant fighting and 'ignoring he was also there', shenanigans.

"Guys! Knock it off." April reprimanded after having enough of their petty bickering. "Have your sticky gold star competition some other time! Let's just get these somewhere safe first, okay? And don't spill anything."

* * *

As they got back, Mikey had received quite the scolding. Don had moped around for not being able to test his new invention and being stuck in the bathtub for quite some time. But then they had presented him with a whole batch of mutagen canisters.

"Oh the experiments I could do…! With ehm, moderation of course." He smiled and corrected himself when Splinter gave him one of those looks that told him not to get out of hand and stay responsible.

"Yea just don't get too excited, we gotta make something to keep them in first."

"Yea.. since Mikey so kindly helped me with the bath he can help me with that too." He said.

"Eheh.. heh.." Mikey smiled and scratched his neck. "I.. uh, we did bring you a gift though! So that should cover it..?" He gave a big smile and Donnie sighed.

"I'm not sure mutagen counts as a gift but… fine, you're still helping me build it though." He quickly added before Mikey could interpret it as a get out of jail card.

"… Does that mean I get the sticky gold star?"

"A what?"

* * *

 **Also a big thank you to whoever nominated my story for the readers choice awards, that was a big surprise and I'm very thankful! ^^**


	26. The Shellraiser

**I'm Alive!**

 **This time I'm making a short drabble update about the Shellraiser! I forgot this chapter was completed, sorry for the delay. ^^'**

* * *

Donnie and Raph grinned widely at each other as the beast they'd been working on for the past weeks was finally finished.

"It's done…" Don could hardly believe it. It had been one hell of a job from drawing board to finish, but they'd actually pulled it off. Well, Raph did a lot of the physical work, but he still felt like he'd done quite a lot himself, from drawing and designing it to making lists and researching parts they needed along with tinkering with the engine and other details Raph just didn't know how to do.

The hardest parts had been when Raph literally had to hold Donnie so he could do the work that was required, because Raph just couldn't make heads or tails out of what was supposed to go where on certain wiring parts.

They'd figured it out in the end though, and now it was ready for the big reveal. Raph practically shoved the rest of the family inside as Don proudly sat in his chair by the latest invention.

"NO. WAY!" Mikey exclaimed as the vehicle was revealed. "You guys did this?!"

"Jupp." Don smiled smugly and exchanged a glance with Raph. They were both really proud of it too.

"Wow guys.. this is actually really cool." Leo said as he looked it over, he had to admit, this was insanely nice.. "So, what's its name?"

"Oh uh.. We haven't named it yet but-"

"The Shellraiser!" Mikey shouted the moment Don mentioned it lacked one. "It's the perfect name!"

"... That is the perfect name." Don responded in surprise.

"Told you I'm good at names!" Mikey cheered. "So can we drive it?"

"Heh, hold on, we'll show you how it works." Donnie smiled.

"Alright so we have made positions for everyone based on their skillset. Leo is the driver."

"What? Why?! I wanna drive..!" Mikey exclaimed.

"I wanted that too.." Raph grumbled, but he already knew who was where and why since he and Donnie previously had this discussion when they designed the interior.

"Because he is the least likely to hit something for fun."

"Dang it." Mikey sighed a bit, but he was right.

"Now, it's powered by the crystal we got from uh.. Mikey's friend, Leatherhead. It's protected by the glass, it should hold, but we gotta make sure it stays that way."

"Right.." Leo looked at the power source with a slight feeling of concern. Holding his hands together he gave Donnie a look.

"Now I'm sure you've thought everything through..."

"Ten times." Don replied.

"Right. But you're certain this is safe..? I mean.. the Kraang could track Leatherhead when-"

"I know, that's why it got the protective glass, they won't be able to track it." He said with confidence. "Anyway, Raph is here, and Mikey goes right over there, keeping track of our route."

"Sweet!" Mikey jumped into his seat and swiveled around. Happy they finally had a rad vehicle to drive around.

"And I also added some holdings for my wheelchair and a fold up seat with a belt in case sensei would be joining too." He quickly added, knowing Leo, he'd have to defend these choices. He definitely had ulterior motives with that design, saying otherwise would be a lie, but they were with good intentions. Also his excuse until he could ease Leo into the idea was perfect.

"Donnie I'm just not... sure that's a good idea. I mean…" Leo eyed the contraption meant to secure his wheelchair, not liking the idea that he would be with them. Their exit options were most often not exactly the wheelchair friendly kind.

Don sighed a little, he knew this was going to be an uphill battle, and Leo had tried to sort of.. in his own way, include him some more. But it felt like Leo had some fear of something happening, and he had a hard time relaxing because evidently Don being included made his thoughts seemingly go somewhere else. He knew he needed to phrase this delicately. Especially if he wanted a chance to be of more use.

"Leo.. I'm not going to just join you guys and do what you guys do. I do realise that's not really possible, I'm not crazy. But if… I'm saying if." He raised a finger at Leo. "Our home is found out and we have to escape, I'd rather not fly and roll around in the Shellraiser as we do so. I included a fold down seat with straps for Splinter too. It's just a precaution. Since we do have a lot of enemies."

The moment he said lots of enemies he kinda wished he'd taken that part back, it seemed to make Leo stressed whenever they brought that up. But this time the response seemed to be one of understanding.

Leo thought he was about to have another argument with Donnie, he'd been more included in their missions for sure, but Leo was in no way ready to include Don like this, no way. He was not- He paused his mental list of arguments against this when Don explained why he'd added them, and Leo felt himself relax.

Mentally he sighed in relief. That was actually a good idea, just in case they had to… He'd make sure they never ever had to, but to know that Don had taken precautions in case they had to flee... and not because he was going to be stubborn and join them, made him feel a lot better.

"Okay, that's... actually great." He smiled genuinely at Donnie and gave him a pat on the shoulder. Visibly relaxing.

Donnie wasn't quite sure what had just happened, but apparently, he just diffused a mental mine of Leo's, and his elder brother seemed grateful for it. He smiled back, perhaps he could worm his way into the missions more after all. Don watched them as they explored the Shellraiser and eventually were allowed by Splinter to go on a test-drive after some instructions, with Raph in charge of explaining things as they went.

As much as Leo didn't want Donnie to come with them, Don feared a day might come when one of them would be fatally injured, and there wouldn't be enough time to get them all the way back to the lair.

In order to prevent that scenario from happening, he would have to be there, like a field medic. As the battles got harder... there was only a matter of time before it would be needed as a precaution. He just had to figure out how to make a realistic plan on how to do it and get the rests approval before that could happen..


	27. Metalhead part 1

**Hello! And happy easter and all that! I didn't get to celebrate because I had to babysit my sisters new kitten and do some work cause I'm going to attend a con this weekend and have a table at Artist Alley! But! I did manage to finish this short-ish chapter! It's most likely being divided in 3 parts really, but that way you get more updates and less waiting.**

* * *

"Okay, so here are the bombs. There are six of them and I've marked out on the map here where to place them." Don tapped with a finger on the map.

Leo stared wide eyed at Donnie as he placed the devices on the desk in front of him, this wasn't what he had expected when he heard Donnie wanted to see him. At all.

"And this here is the memory stick. I've already got a program on it that will do the work, so all you have to do is put it in the computer's main terminal and wait for the bleep noise, that means it's done. Don't forget to pull it out and take it with you, that is essential."

"Wait, Don. Hold up. Bombs? What the shell is all this for?"

"Huh? To destroy that robot factory of course."

"What? But we already destroyed it, didn't Mikey tell you?"

"Oh I know, but you didn't really- wait didn't Mikey tell you?" Don sighed. "Figures he'd get sidetracked. Anyway, what you did merely halted them, they'll just repair that and be back on track again. So I devised a more permanent solution."

"But.. bombs?"

"Ninjas use bombs." Donnie commented. "Speaking of that, I've also made you smoke bombs and headsets. I'd demonstrate them but.. I can't really use them to their full potential anyway. But this way you can make safer exits and entries into and out of battle." He made a hand gesture as he explained.

"Which is the main thing and talking to me during missions will be easier if you need to with these headsets rather than the phones." It had honestly taken more time getting the right materials for them than to actually build them, but now they were finally ready.

Leo stared at the stuff he was presented with and felt like he just got a bunch of things dumped on him like it was nothing big. "And you're sure these bombs are safe?"

"Don't worry, as long as you're out of the building when activating them and as long as you place them at the spots I've marked you'll be fine. The only thing that won't be is the factory and potential Kraangs. Oh right, here is the activation button, I put a safety hatch on it, open here and then press it. Don't try that here though."

"But.. Donnie are you sure? I mean..."

"Leo, please. Don't worry, I've put a lot of work into this, and I wouldn't have if Mikey hadn't encouraged me to do something I don't I normally do. Besides bombs is just another type of weapon we can utilize, and I've started making quite a bit of weaponry as it is. I've worked out the numbers, I'm sure you can do it. I trust you, you go out there all the time fighting crime. Please let me have this and trust me?"

"…" Leo looked it over, Donnie had never truly been a part of a mission as much as he would be if he did this. Somewhere along the line Leo had gotten this vision that he could keep his disabled brother completely out of the fight, which had of course in the end not worked out, Donnie had slowly become a bigger part of their operations. But realistically, he was already involved just from being part of the family... him making a couple of bombs or not wouldn't change that fact. Their whole family was already very involved, whether he wanted to or not.

"Okay." He finally conceded.

"Yes!" Donnie lit up. "Oh and while you're at it, if you have the time, I mean, I don't know how the combat will go, you can't predict every aspect. Anyway what I want is… if you could grab some robot parts? I'd love to be able to study them, maybe.. make something out of it. Something useful, I mean. From what I gather they are really good at robotics, and I think it would help me a lot to be able to study some of it up close." He looked pleadingly at Leo.

Leo found it hard to say no. "Okay, fine… But only IF we get the time for it, no promises, okay?"

"That's fair. Now about the bombs..."

* * *

Leo sighed and wondered why they agreed to this. Raph seemed to have caught his expression because suddenly he spoke up.

"Don't you dare complain, I'm the one with a bag of bombs on my back."

"I know, I know.." He sighed again, at least this time they had gone over the blue print properly, the first thing they were supposed to do was check if the previous damage was fixed or if they actually needed to do something else.

As it turned out, the factory was bustling with activity once they entered, they quickly hid in a bunch of crates.

"Donnie was right, they are back already."

"You totally called it bro."

"Great, so we did all of that for nothing." Raph grumbled and peeked out from under the lid.

"Well let's make sure it's not for nothing this time." Leo said as he steeled himself, there was a big chance this was going to turn into a fight.

"You got the map and my bombs this time."

Said Donnie and Leo nearly jumped at the unexpected voice in his ear. Right, headset. He adjusted it and awkwardly shifted in his position, it was easy to forget he had it when concentrating on other things.

"Yea, we got this. Just tell me the first one is close by because I'm not sure we can get out of this spot without being seen."

"… Donnie?" No reply came.

"Uh, you have to push the button, otherwise he can't hear you." Mikey commented.

"Great, now I'm monologuing." He sighed and pushed the button.

"Donnie?"

"Yes?"

"Told you."

"Quiet Mikey. We're hiding in a crate and-"

"Button."

He gave Mikey a glare and pushed the darn button again, tech just wasn't his element, they didn't have to nag him about it. The toaster had proven enough of a point already.

"We're hiding in a crate by the first corridor of the second window, which one is the closest?"

"Oh that would be spot C, keep to the left and move towards the back of the building, there should be a bearing at the corner when it turns right, place it there, somewhere not too obvious."

"Got it, thanks."

"Button."

"…. Got it. Thanks." He gave Raph a glare. "Not you too."

"No problem, uh.. not me too what?" Came Don's voice across the headset.

".. Never mind that wasn't meant for you."

Donnie tapped at his keyboard and checked the blue print, he wasn't sure what Leo was on about, but it was clear he had issues with the headset, despite it being quite simple. Then again, he had issues with most tech, and the kitchen ones were even more basic. Both Mikey and Raph got the concept quickly enough, then again button pushing wasn't something they were unfamiliar with, being the video game fanatics in the family. Leo played games too though, so he had no excuses.

A tea mug was gently placed in front of him, glancing up Splinter was standing there with one of his own in hand.

"I trust everything is going well?" He asked, he didn't really have any insight into what Donnie was actually doing, but knowing he could talk to his brothers and they back was a positive one.

"Yea, so far so good I guess? Thank you, sensei." He grabbed the tea and sipped a little before going back to the computer. After a while he realised Splinter wasn't leaving.

"Was there.. anything else?"

"No. Just making sure you drink your tea. Michelangelo says you have a problem with remembering your drink and food." He pointed out, to Donnie's embarrassment.

"Oh. Well I.." He paused, he couldn't really argue with that.. upon realising his father was going to awkwardly stand there and look at him until he finished his tea, Donnie proceeded to drink it in gulps.

"Now that wasn't so hard to do, was it?" He smiled, took the cup and walked away.

"How is it going?" He asked after feeling relieved once Splinter decided to leave.

"Good!" Came Mikey's short comment, he was pretty sure he heard lasers in the background. Ah, a fight. Probably best not to disturb then. He waited and fiddled with his fingers in the meantime, vaguely wondering how long it was gonna take until it was fine to ask how it was going again.

"I really need to finish that visual upgrade." He noted as he waited. That would probably be helpful.

A while later Raph suddenly spoke up. "Alright we got the info and planted that virus in the computer, I think we're about ready to bail, before they bring in reinforcement. You sure we don't need to plant more bombs? I'd really like to blow these guys off the planet."

"No it should be enough, besides, we don't wanna blow the entire block, just the one building." They did want to safe humans, not case their destruction.

"Aww.. too bad."

He could hear Raph wasn't truly sorry about it though."

"Hey, you get to blow up a building with Kraang in it, not good enough?"

"Yea sounds good to me!"

Donnie could almost hear Raph's grin.

Then there was some silence again, he decided to check his phones GPS tracking and found they were all out of the building by now and moving away.

"Oh, they should be ready to blow it soon, I hope it-"

"WOOOooo! Dude that was some sick blast!" Mikey suddenly shouted, with a lot of background noise.

"Ow.. not so loud..! .. Did it work? It all fell..?"

"Just as planned dude! It looks sick! Wish you could be here to see it!"

"Alright, we're moving out!" He could hear Leo shouting over the noise in the background.

"Gotta go D, see ya at home!"

"Yea, see you later."

* * *

As it turned out, their mission was a flying success, more or less anyway, it might not have gone exactly as planned, as Mikey had suggested, but they did indeed execute the plan and the details weren't awfully important anyway. So that was definitely something, the bombs were doing their job, and so had the smoke bombs, which Mikey enjoyed immensely. A little too much in fact.

The mission wasn't without rewards either, the guys had found and brought back one of those Kraang robots.

"This is what they look like..?" Donnie inspected the robot, it was in pieces though, the whole thing hadn't quite fit down the sewer entrance.

He had seen a few photos but it wasn't the same as seeing them for real, imagining his brothers having to fight these worried him slightly, but he also knew combat and having enemies wasn't without risk. He'd make sure to use this well, the better stuff he could make, the safer his would be, as they'd started to rely on it more and more, but also need it more.

"I'll make sure to study it well, thanks guys!" He smiled wide, Raph grinned back, he knew carrying that junk would be worth it in the end, even if he had complained about it just a tad on the way.

Their enemies weren't getting fewer in number, though Raph was pretty sure they could take them all on.

As he'd said, "We're like three guys kicking the ass of an army! There is no way we can be beat." And surprisingly Leo had started to agree slightly. He was more cautious and worried than Raph, but they had both started to feel like they weren't beatable, at least not in combat. Missions with other things involved where another matter all together.

* * *

Donnie sat by his laptop, staring at the code as his program was so close to finish decrypting...

"I'm in!" he exclaimed excitedly as he opened the encrypted data files to have a look.

His excitement slowly turned to concern, and then worry. His eyes widened as he stared at the blueprints on his screen.

"Uh.. guys?" Mikey and Raph perked up from their game and paused as they heard Donnie call from the lab.

"We have a BIG emergency!"

It only took a few seconds before they were all gathered in the lab.

"Don what's going on?" Leo quickly questioned as he arrived with the rest.

"You know that information you got from the Kraang? Well I managed to decode it, which I tell you was NOT easy!"

"But..? What does it say?"

"It's a plan, a plan to spread mutagen all over New York! And they have a mutagen bomb to do it! We gotta get there and defuse it!"

"A bomb... a mutagen bomb. This is really, really bad…!" Leo exclaimed as they looked at the blueprint on Donnie's computer.

"What?! A bomb? Are you serious? HOW are we going to defuse a BOMB?!" Mikey seemed a little panicked, to say the least, but he wasn't alone in feeling panic.

Donnie cleared his throat to interrupt them before things got out of hand.

"I will do it."


End file.
